I spent a fair chunk of the last couple of days underground at Glenden Mine, just outside of Mackay and I can honestly say I was taken well and truly out of my comfort zone!

300km/h - no worries, underground above huge hole – scary.

I got the opportunity to help mine some coal in a mine where there was a 300 metre hole in it and you are standing on what is basically piping that moves back into one wall and across as the other comes forward. It’s hard to explain, but it’s like the movement of the ribbon part of a typewriter.

Anyway it was an awesome, but scary, experience and one I will always remember.

The reason I was in Queensland in the first place was the race at Ipswich and once again the event proved to be a thorn in my side. No matter what I do it seems I can’t achieve a good result at Queensland Raceway.

Qualifying was very good with me lining up on the grid in 8th position. That’s the third time in a row I have been in the top ten, so the car has qualifying speed. I just have to turn that into race results.

It also gives me a chance to equal my record of four top tens in qualifying next round at Winton, where I have been .0018 and .07 off pole in the last two seasons.

But on to the races and race one was going along ok until Steve Richards managed to give me a solid whack in the rear. I must have been paying for my team mate Greg Murphy hitting Andrew Jones earlier on in the same race!

Races two and three saw me jostling for position further back in the field and, while I held position in race two, I made a mistake attempting to pass Andrew Thompson in race three and ended up having an off.

We made a change to the car where it didn’t respond as well under brakes and it caught me out.

After two race weekends on the new tyres I can’t say I am finding them much different, but I will get a clearer idea of where we are at with them after Winton as I have driven this car there with the old tyres.

Someone said to me that Greg looked a bit frustrated on the weekend, but the truth is we all are. We aren’t getting the results we want even though we have a more competitive car. If Murph is frustrated he isn’t the only one.

I had Big Ben Karting champ Alex Webb with me for the weekend and I think the chance to see what happens in debriefs, with the data and behind the scenes at the track has reinforced in his mind he wants to drive a Holden V8 Supercar.

I hope Alex had a great time on the weekend as he got to mingle with the team and the rest of the V8 Supercar drivers. It was great to have him around.

Before the weekend a group of the drivers headed out to the XXXX Brewery for a tour and I was pretty impressed, even though I didn’t drink any.

I’ve been on a brewery tour before at the Heineken Brewery, but that was more of a history of the company, while the XXXX tour was more of a look at how the beer is made.

Jamie Whincup and I actually lost the rest of the group as we marvelled at the bottling process. The bottles looked like cars jostling for position on the turn as they were about to be filled. That probably sounds like a weird analogy, but it’s how it looked to us.

After the weekend I caught a bit of the F1 from Hockenheim and was amazed at  Lewis Hamilton’s drive. He had so much more pace than anyone out there and came charging home to win in a memorable performance from Nelson Piquet and Felipe Massa.

Post race there was a bit of criticism of Massa for allowing Hamilton to pass so easily, but Lewis had so much more speed that I think Felipe did the right thing by not risking an accident. Why take the risk when you will only go four points behind if you don’t?

This weekend I am looking forward to the Bledisloe Cup, but I will be interested to see how the fans react. Robbie Deans is very popular back home while Graham Henry is yet to get the All Black fans really behind him.

Go the All Blacks!

JR

Qual when well finishing up 8th but was top 3 in first 2 part’s.Very close though.In race today got hit wide on first lap losing 8 spot’s but did have the speed

It hasn’t been too hectic a week… yet, but the trek to Queensland Raceway has yet to begin. While not really looking forward to visiting this track I am looking forward to racing.
 
My dislike for the circuit is well known after I laid into the lay out in this space last year, but it runs [...]

It’s been a while since the race weekend but things have been hectic so please forgive the lateness of the post.
 
What can I say about the weekend? Things were looking good until I made a mistake in race three and ran into the back of Mark Skaife entering the pits. It’s the first time I [...]