The wheels fell off, literally, on the weekend. Hamish and I were traveling well in the Kart race when we lost a wheel, I was in the Kart so it must have been my fault. We actually rallied well and finished the event in third overall, but it wasn’t enough to take out the race.

We had a fantastic turn out to Carrs Road and I want to thank Big Ben Pies for their sponsorship, without which none of what we achieved would have been possible.

I want to congratulate 13 year-old Alexander Webb who won the junior race and will now be accompanying me throughout the whole weekend at Queensland Raceway. He is pretty excited and I believe his whole family are going to come over for a holiday so it should be a good time.

I was impressed with Alexander’s driving skills as the conditions were wet then dry, muck like Monaco on the weekend really, except colder!

It was a good weekend for Kiwis all around as my old mate Scott Dixon took out the Indy 500, which is a massive achievement for him.

I heard Danica Patrick was rather upset at Ryan Briscoe after their incident in the pit lane. After the way she shoved Dan Wheldon after last season’s race in Milwaukee, I think Ryan might be lucky she didn’t head down to his garage, because what would you do?

You would just have to stand there and cop it or walk away as quickly as possible.

I also attended the Crusaders win over the Hurricanes and, aside from a few heart stopping moments early and very late in the game, I was happy to cheer my team on in my red and black beanie.

I hope they beat the Waratahs this weekend and claim the title!

I didn’t actually see the Monaco Grand Prix and, as is usually the case was told it was the best of the year. It was good to see Lewis Hamilton get another win and get himself back in the hunt, but I had to feel for Adrian Sutil. From what I have heard it’s unlikely he will be exchanging Christmas cards with Kimi Raikkonen.

That incident would have really hurt Force India not just on the track but also off it as it will hit them in the hip pocket.

Back on to V8 Supercars and I spent most of yesterday sitting in my car having a seat made and having the rest of the car’s interior built in around me.

I read today that V8 Supercar are considering opening the door to other manufacturers other than Holden or Ford. With Ford potentially looking at backing less teams and the possibility Holden could follow suit I don’t think it’s a bad thing.

Although it would in a way go away from the Holden Vs Ford rivalry our sport has been built on.

If it were to happen I would like to see a manufacturer who is already involved in racing come forward. I would assume the most logical choice would be Toyota as they are involved at the highest levels of motorsport, have money (as evidenced in F1) and also produce cars here.

The other options I could entertain would be a European manufacturer like BMW or Mercedes. They make cars which are big enough, are huge names, are involved in motorsport and could open the doors to Europe.

Of course this is all hypothetical and may never happen.

JR

I’m sitting back at home in Nelson, New Zealand as I write this and it’s good to be home! The whole family came back to give mum a surprise 60th birthday over the weekend and we all had a great time.
 
I flew in from Melbourne with the family, my brother came in from Thailand and [...]

When I think of the weekend the first word that pops into my head is “disaster”. From day one of practice very little was going right for me. Perhaps my car was just upset it was having its last run?
 
In fact, the only time the car held up well was in qualifying when I finished [...]

I’ve spent the last couple of days out at Cloudbreak mines in WA meeting up with miners, looking over the new mine and getting to drive really expensive diggers which are awesome pieces of machinery. Aside from having fun playing with big boys toys, the time over here has been a bit tiring. Getting up at [...]