After putting his TeamVodafone Commodore on pole and winning the first of the twin 200km races on Saturday, Whincup was the only driver in the entire field all weekend to post a sub-1:13min.

He did that in this morning’s all-in 20 minute qualifying session which easily got him pole position again.

Whincup led the field for the first eight laps and was on course to replicate yesterday’s domination of the field until the brake line went.“Something flipped up and busted the brakeline,” J-Dub explained.

“But the car was a bullet.

“I thought it was almost perfect yesterday and then we improved it today so we were out of there but as Brocky (the late, great Peter Brock) said and many people after that, that’s motorsport.

“We understand that when we get involved that a $2 part and things like what happened today can go wrong.”

Even though the back-to-back Champ has maintained until now that the Championship is too far away to worry about, he admitted to BigPond Sport that his race 16 result was not what he wanted.

“It’s disappointing - really, really disappointing,” J-Dub said.

“I’ve been busting my arse for four races to try and bridge that gap (to James Courtney), we get so close and now we’re back to square one again.

“But at the end of the day the car was a rocket. There was another win there up for grabs and it didn’t happen.”

Although the team was able to get Whincup back out on to the track to salvage some points, Courtney’s Championship lead has blown out from a mere 18 points at the end of yesterday to 120 today.

But if past form is anything to go by, TeamVodafone will come out with guns blazing at the L&H 500 to bounce back from today’s disappointing result.

By Briar Gunther, 5:55 PM Sun 11 July, 2010. Source: BigPond Sport

This weekend we head to Winton raceway that is located in central Victoria beside a small country town called Benalla.  The tight little track is somewhat important to our championship as it gives variety.  It gives the supporter that doesn’t like the glitz and glamour of most of our events an opportunity to enjoy raw V8 racing.  It is also the test track for all Victorian based teams. 

Winton has been a happy hunting ground for us in the past. I feel we have really improved the car on soft tyres and I am looking forward to proving that this weekend.

TeamVodafone in fact have either won or scored the most points the last 4 years running at Winton Raceway.  Lowndesy was too fast in 2006.  I had my first ever sprint round win in 2007.  After qualifying 21^st in 2008 we choose the perfect strategy in the wet and came through to be equally first with Tander and Davison.  Last year Craig dominated and won both races, the only man to do so with the difficult 2009 format.

So of course we are confident heading into this weekend’s race.  Dutto made some great inroads with the soft tyre setup at Queensland Raceway that put us on pole and out in front at the start of race 2.  Only a fool would guess what position we would have finished if the engine stayed together.

With the freezing conditions expected, the biggest challenge is to get temperature into the tyres, especially for qaulifying.

With a new car expected for Darwin this could be the last time I drive Kate - who has been very good to me so far.

So it is time to hit the track on Friday.  Steve Owen will again do the first 2 practice sessions then I will jump in after that. 

Talk soon,

Jamie.

As I mentioned to you last week we had to use the Dunlop soft tyre for all qualifying and races at this round.  I have to admit we found it really difficult to find a nice balance in the car and ultimately go quick. 

The weekend on paper didn’t look too bad.  Craig and I were first and second in practice but we all knew deep down that we weren’t that strong.  We put our tyres on at the right time and got an advantage.

Saturday was really tough.  After qualifying was complete we were a dismal 12^th quickest.  A bit of shock as we haven’t been off the front row all year.  I felt the car wasn’t that strong and I didn’t do the best job either.  We fought hard in the race and clawed our way back to 4^th.  I had my eye on Garth Tander the whole race and it was really nice to slip through on the inside with 2 laps to go. 

We got stuck into the laptop Saturday night and I couldn’t be happier with the efforts and the will to win the engineers put into improving the car for Sunday.  When most of our opposition thought we were a long shot for the win on Sunday we hit them hard with a pole position Sunday morning.

I really focussed on my launch off the start line for the race.  When the red light went out, I dropped the hand brake and the car launched nicely.  I was really impressed with the improvement in the car over night and we managed to pull away from the field and lead with a comfortable margin.  On lap 22 the car picked up a miss fire in the engine.  Although it’s important to keep positive I knew our day was done.  We pitted a few laps later for repairs and never returned to the track.

Clearly I am disappointed and angry about the result, however we still lead the battle.  We tackled another major challenge this weekend, although we have no silverware to show for our efforts, the most important thing is we showed the TeamVodafone spirit.

Bring on Winton!

Jamie

Another quick turn around as we head to Queensland Raceway for Event 5 of the Championship.

Since New Zealand I have experienced a bit of travel, my first trip was to Dawson Mine for Komatsu, one of my major sponsors.  Dawson is a few hours from Gladstone and we were up there celebrating a Komatsu deal (16 dump trucks) to the mine.  A show car came up and the Komatsu crew at Dawson mine put on a mean BBQ. 

I then travelled to Hervey Bay for a Holden dealership visit.  The team at Rod Grieves Holden won the “Holden Grand Master for 2009”. This has been the first year this dealership has achieved this prestigious award and put on an open day.  It was a great day and I have heard back from Justin Bath, the manager that it was a successful event and the general public who visited were really happy to come along and receive posters and the opportunity to get their TeamVodafone merchandise signed.

After a late Sunday night in New Zealand I haven’t felt 100%, so it was important that I had a few days off over the weekend.  Problem was - the weather up here on the Gold Coast was perfect, so I took the boat out on both days and wake boarded till I dropped.  Man did I wake up sore Tuesday, so I am working overtime to try and stretch out before the weekend. 

So what should be a straightforward weekend on our test track has been given a serious twist.  All qualifying and races will be run on the Dunlop soft tyre.

Now let me explain something, there is an opinion out there that I hate the soft tyre.  This is not true, in fact I think I won more soft tyre races last year than any other driver.  I just disliked the format it was used.  One set of soft tyres that can be run on either day meant the team that did the best job didn’t always win.  I am wrapped that the V8 Supercar board have fixed the problem for 2010 and made it fair for every team, both days.

So we have a bit of work to do, we will have to change the cars setup to get the most out of the softer compound.  As a general rule the car will have more grip and will want to roll more around the corners, so Dutto will have to tweak the suspension to keep the roll under control.  I have no idea what he does but I know he does something because I can hear the spanners clanging underneath!

We need to keep the intensity up and forget about the and go hard for the win.  I will let you know how I go as the weekend unfolds.

Hope you can all make it and I look forward to seeing you there!

Cheers,

Jamie.

So here we are, I have just touched down this afternoon to a reasonably mild day in Auckland. After a long flight I am really looking forward to a relaxing night and can’t wait to head on to Hamilton and show everyone the goods on track this weekend. This will be V8 Supercars third visit to the facility which in my opinion is a very challenging and when on track, a very rewarding circuit. 

To refresh your memory, I had a major crash there in 2008.  It was late in the qualifying session, I had 2 green boxes and was on for a blinder when I copped a hit from Todd Kelly and slammed into the wall.  I didn’t make the race on that occasion but between you and I, I had a night out to remember!  All night I had people coming up to me saying, “what are you doing here?!’ Ha.  We sure went back there last year all fired up, proudly winning both races.

So this year we head to Hamilton confident but also focussed on the job at hand.  We are still a little shattered about our recent results at Adelaide and the Grand Prix.  Both occasions we had a bullet fast car but couldn’t bring home the silverware.  I think this weekend it’s important to steady the ship and get back on track.

TeamVodafone have been working non stop since GP and the team and I couldn’t be more amped to get back out there.  I’m looking forward to hitting the track and feel well prepared for the challenge ahead.

So be sure to check out the website over the weekend for “on the go results” and keep up with all the action this weekend. I will posting results daily from the track and keen to get some videos up and running too – watch this space!

We’re gonna work some magic this week! Hope to see you all there.

Take it easy,

Jamie

Just touched down in Adelaide for round 1, I meant round 3 of the championship. To be honest it all feels normal from my end. Clipsal still feels like Clipsal although we started in the Middle East a few weeks ago.

It was a little chilly getting off the plane which I am not complaining about. I would love a nice cool weekend of racing. I remember almost dying here in 2007 when we copped 38 degrees on the Saturday. I backed off for 5 laps to catch my breath and then pushed on again with 3 laps to go. Hot or cold this is still the toughest event of the year and one that has given me the most reward. I regarded my battle with Will Davo and win here last year as my most memorable race of 2009. So memorable I am very hungry to do it again.

We have to be confident coming into the weekend. We won here last year and had a fantastic run in our new Holden’s in the Middle East. But at the same time we are fully aware of our challenges. Although our car was very fast on the ultra smooth Middle Eastern tracks, it may be a completely different story on the very bumpy streets of Adelaide. Our plan is to do what we normally do and work really closely with Lowndesy especially on Friday to try and find the right setup on the cars.

Since we spoke last time allot of activity has happened off track. You would have noticed the website was offline for a few hours while we make changes to the back end. You won’t see many changes at the moment but I am slowly putting plans into place to make the community better for it’s members. There has also been some long term negotiations finalised that unfortunately I can’t mention here. But I am confident that over time the end result will mean I am performing better as a racing driver. I know I can’t wait around and be lazy, I have to keep striving to be better otherwise my opposition will run me over.

So I feel I have recovered well from being away and feel fit and healthy ahead of another big weekend. I know most of you are wrapped we are back in oz and battling it out on home soil. I hope to see as many of you as possible out at the circuit. If you get a chance check out our new merchandise range, I think we have found another gear this year. Gee that almost rhymes!

Take it easy

Jamie

Now it’s almost here and it’s a great feeling knowing we are coming into the grand final with just 22 points to get. If you do the maths that means even if my mate Will (Davison) wins both races, I only need to get 28th position in one race to win the championship.

I’m fairly confident we can achieve that. It makes me especially proud of our team to have such a lead at this point in the series, considering what a topsy-turvy year it’s been with the unknown factor of the soft tyre rule, the changes that happened with the different format at Indy and then not going to Bahrain.

It seems they have thrown everything at us this year to disrupt our planning and make it difficult to run away with a points lead, yet we’ve managed to do it all the same.

While my first focus is to get those 22 points, the second item on the agenda is to get a win in Sydney because it’s going to be such an amazing event.

It’s the grand final of a truly national championship. My third agenda item for the weekend is the team championship. You would have thought it a bit far-fetched that we could win both the driver and team championships before the Perth round two weeks ago.

We were so far behind in the points, but we did a perfect job at Perth with two pole positions and two wins so now we’re actually one point ahead of HRT with a chance of winning the prized pair of titles.

Of course, the unknown factor will be the track. No one has even walked around it yet and there’s no computer game to practise on, so everyone is in the same boat. I’ll have a good look at the layout and come up with an educated guess on the lines, then when I get on the track I’ll confirm or amend them.

After that there will be a lot of going over the track in my head to get it right. From what I’ve seen it looks like a good track for passing. There are several places where the track is wide which gives a good opportunity for passing, especially turn one at the end of the main straight.

However, I’ve been so busy with promotional activities this week I haven’t had much of a chance to study the track yet. One of those promotional activities was the launch of our team calendar to aid the McGrath Foundation. It was a Vodafone initiative, it’s all for a good cause and it was a bit of fun. Some of the photos are a bit racy, but I was fairly conservative. I tend to concentrate on being a racing driver rather than being a male model but I was happy to take part, even though I was definitely the most modest.

I don’t think I’m letting the cat out of the bag when I say there was a fair bit of trick photography and trick lighting involved plus a fair bit of photoshopping afterwards.

It’s amazing what you can do with good lights. But I’d just like to say there was none of that with my pictorial.

That’s something I’ve now got to sort out if I want to be competitive right to the end of the season. Thankfully I still have time to turn it around. I can also take some comfort from the way I was able to recover from my own misfortune when I crashed at the end of the third race. Of course, I shouldn’t have been in that situation to begin with.

But I didn’t need a session with the team psychologist to get my head straight for the last race. Once that helmet goes on I am immediately focussed. That crash was just a lapse in concentration. You have to remember that we are not just driving around out there; we’re on the limit every corner of every lap and you need to have 100 per cent concentration for the whole race.

The damage was almost had enough to finish me for the weekend, but our team did a fantastic job to get it right for the last race in very short time. Twelve guys replaced the whole front end and the rear including the watts linkage in just two hours and even managed to fill the drink bottle with water and ice.

In fact, all the teams did really well considering the amount of carnage, plus the hectic four-race format and the complicated strategies that required. Our crew did such a good job the car still handled just as well as it had all weekend. In fact, it was so good I managed to pass about 30 cars in that last race. I started in 23rd place and passed about six cars before the race restart where I was sent back to 23rd, then I got myself back up to sixth by the end. My race engineer told me “don’t come back unless you are in the top 10″, so I did.

I know Bargs had a go at me about my driving, but there is nothing to talk about in my pass on him. I don’t know why he turned across me. It was a textbook pass and the stewards and everyone in the pits saw it the same way.

What a crazy weekend, but what a great event even with the A1s pulling out. I thought the V8 Supercars put on a great show. There was plenty of carnage for the fans and three different winners in four races. It offered everything. What more could you want?

I don’t know what they will do for future Gold Coast events, but I agree with our team boss Roland (Dane) about the possibility of getting the
Formula 3 guys in before they head to Macau in November. I know the V8s would like to make it our own event. We want to be the number one category and be in control of our own destiny, but we also need some fantastic support categories. I’m sure F3 would be accepted without doubt. They are top-notch open-wheel cars and not particularly noisy. Most of the corporates don’t want the cars as noisy as the Indy cars or the A1s, but still the F3 cars are full-spec racers. It’s also one of the most competitive categories in the world.

Despite crowds being down because of the uncertainty of the event there was still that awesome Indy vibe and just thousands of people enjoying themselves with that carnival/party atmosphere. I’d hate to see the event lose that vibe.

And it’s important those people coming to the Nikon SuperGP realise that A1GP haven’t just decided to abort the Australian round. The result of them not coming here could almost put an end to that whole championship, they’re not just aborting this round.

In saying that, I’m so proud of Tony Cochrane and the V8 Supercar board. This weekend could’ve been a bit of a black mark for motorsport but the way Cocho and the board have pulled together Plan B to give fans double the amount of race starts and finishes, plus 50 per cent more racing for the V8s, is fantastic.

For the thousands of people who are there to watch the V8s and have a good time, it’s probably going to work out better.
But no, it’s probably not an advantage for me. Leading the championship the less rounds to go the better and the less racing you do the better. It could disadvantage the position I’m in.

But, on the flip side of the coin, it’s another opportunity to gain some more points on my position as well. If I do well. As a racing driver _ I’ve been vocal about this in the past _ I always want to do more racing and this weekend is an opportunity for another two more races to do this year, which is great.

I love Indy. The track itself has copped a bit of flak from time to time about being very tight, narrow and hard to pass. But I just have this completely different opinion of it _ I reckon it’s just one of the greatest tracks of all time. In qualifying, having new tyres on a V8 Supercar, out there brushing the mirrors in qualifying is one of the best sessions of the year. It’s unbelievable. Just barrowing this monster through a concrete canyon, there’s no greater feeling than when you get to the end of the lap and you’ve done a good time.

So for everyone who has tickets and is planning to come out to this Nikon SuperGP, don’t be scared of the changes. The party’s still going to be there, the V8s will be in full swing and I’m going to do everything I can to go back-to-back, run my own race and try to keep the surfboard trophy here in Queensland. We’re now into this high-speed run down to the championship finale at Sydney.

This is where it gets kind of hectic with a race every two weeks and for me it’s a little more hectic with the Race of Champions in Beijing after the SuperGP. But that’s not on my mind at the moment. My attention is focussed on one event at a time and right now that’s this great Gold Coast weekend of racing.

Features include:

Limited edition TeamVodafone removable handset cover
Exclusive in-car video footage of a Jamie Whincup Bathurst Lap
Exclusive TeamVodafone ring tones and wallpapers
Great Quality Q-VGA Display
FM Radio, Music Player and Bluetooth
3G internet capable

Currently available at participating dick smith, Allphones and Vodafone stores, and also online at store.vodafone.com.au

A handset will be given away each week, beginning on Friday September 25.

To enter, simply leave a comment with your answer to the following question.

How many points do you think Jamie will score at the SuperGP this weekend? Hint - there are 300 points available.

Week 4 competition entries will close at midnight on Friday October 23. One entry per post please. Members may enter each week but will not be eligible to win more than 1 handset. Competition winners will be announced following week 4’s competition.

It was the first time in a long time I had been able to finish the race and I was happy to get the chance to do that. As soon as I crossed the line I was straight on the radio to thank the guys in the pits. We battled very trying conditions all day and things just didn’t go our way the whole time. It was a big roller coaster. We were in contention from the start, then got the drive through penalty, so we dropped back, we had some ordinary wet pace, got back into contention, had some luck with a safety car, but couldn’t convert it. We had just too many mistakes.

HRT won the race like we did in the past three years with no errors. In the past we had won the race when we weren’t the quickest, but we also didn’t have any issues.
This time there were four or five issues that set us back. You can bounce back from two or three, but not five. I think the black flag for the dangerous pit release was fair enough. We released the car and FPR had to jump on the brakes to get out of the way, even though there was no contact. All pit lane rules are for safety. The last thing we want is contact and mechanics in danger.

It wasn’t ideal, but I knew there was a long way to go and that we could get back there. I had my first race laps in the wet and dropped back because the tyre pressures were too low. I couldn’t turn the car in the corners and I was just getting passed in the straights. It was wheel spinning in a straight line and I couldn’t get grip to use full throttle. It was frustrating, but my main focus was not to throw it away. In those tough slippery conditions I could easily have speared off the track and ended the day.

At the end, it was a fantastic duel. There was a bunch of cars in contention and swapping places right to the chequered flag. Kelly was holding up a bunch of cars, but they had track position and they were within their right to defend their line. They had an issue with their car and were doing the best they could with what they had. I was getting frustrated behind Bargs (Jason Bargwanna) and made a last-corner dive which I felt was safe. The main issue is Bargs moved under brakes and the car getting passed isn’t supposed to do that. I’m happy with my move, but I can understand Bargs being disappointed as he’s been working hard to get back into the series.

But I’m not a charity either. I had a few runs on Bargs and he shut the gate on me a few times. No one likes anyone being defensive like that so I did what I had to do. I saw him half go and tried to clip the front of him to straighten him up a bit but I couldn’t. I didn’t want him to spin and tried to straighten him up.

In the end I was very happy for my former housemate and good friend Davo (Will Davison) getting his first Bathurst win. I know what it feels like and I’d like to congratulate him and the HRT team for their flawless effort.

Now my attention is on Surfers Parade next weekend. It usually seems that whoever wins there goes on to get the championship and there are four of us now in contention, so it will be a thrilling ride to the finish in Sydney.

Features include:

Limited edition TeamVodafone removable handset cover
Exclusive in-car video footage of a Jamie Whincup Bathurst Lap
Exclusive TeamVodafone ring tones and wallpapers
Great Quality Q-VGA Display
FM Radio, Music Player and Bluetooth
3G internet capable

Currently available at participating dick smith, Allphones and Vodafone stores, and also online at store.vodafone.com.au

A handset will be given away each week, beginning on Friday September 25.

To enter, simply give us your most creative answer to this week’s question:

What part does technology play in being a V8 Supercar champion?

Week 3 competition entries will close at 3pm on Friday October 16. One entry per post please. Members may enter each week but will not be eligible to win more than 1 handset. Competition winners will be announced following week 4’s competition.

Check it out on the video page.

Features include:

Limited edition TeamVodafone removable handset cover
Exclusive in-car video footage of a Jamie Whincup Bathurst Lap
Exclusive TeamVodafone ring tones and wallpapers
Great Quality Q-VGA Display
FM Radio, Music Player and Bluetooth
3G internet capable

Currently available at participating dick smith, Allphones and Vodafone stores, and also online at store.vodafone.com.au

A handset will be given away each week, beginning on Friday September 25.

To enter, simply give us your most creative answer to this week’s question:

How would a Nokia 3120 TeamVodafone handset help you show your true colours?

Week 2 competition entries will close at 3pm on Friday October 9. One entry per post please. Members may enter each week but will not be eligible to win more than 1 handset. Week 1 winner will be drawn this week.

From Bathurst, it’s a race every two weeks until the end of the year. One minute you are racing at Bathurst and the next thing you know you are sitting down for Christmas lunch with the family. It’s a gruelling schedule and a right royal battle all the way to the finish. So we have to get our fitness right before next weekend because we are pumping it for the rest of the year.

I suppose this will be pretty much what it will be like next year with the two condensed halves of the season with racing every fortnight and a nine-week break in the middle. I don’t do anything massively special in my training except to modify frequency to cope with the two or three driving stints we do at Bathurst. So instead of one training session a day we do several sessions a day to get used to switching on and off and recovering quickly.

Generally we have one big race per day, so we warm up, compete and cool down. The body gets used to that. Bathurst is more like a game of footy with two halves so you work hard, put in the big effort, then recover as quick as you can and then go back out there and put in again for the next half.

Speaking of footy, I’m really looking forward to the grand final this weekend. I’m originally from Melbourne so I’m a big Storm fan and I’m hoping they can make it two out of four. Going by their form of last week it’s looking good. I’ll probably catch up at the local with a few mates and watch the game as we did with the AFL final. It’s an amazing time of the year for sport with the footy finals and then Bathurst.

We did our final testing at Queensland Raceway on Monday. There were no issues that surfaced. It was all fairly routine. We weren’t trying to go for times or speed, we just ran in all our equipment for the race over about 10 laps to make sure everything is running well. Then we get everything crack tested and that goes in Saturday night for the big race on Sunday. We also did plenty of driver changes and pitstop practice.

It’s great news to hear that Casey Stoner is fit and ready to return to MotoGP this weekend in Portugal after his lay-off with a mystery illness. They say it’s chronic fatigue syndrome but no one knows for sure. I think he just needed a bit of a much-deserved rest. We went overseas quite young and has been pushing really hard for a long time. I can relate to that. I’ve been pushing hard since I started as a kid in karting. Every sportsman can knows that to stay at the elite level as he has it takes a lot of energy and mentally it’s extremely tough. I hope he will come back feeling refreshed, motivated and strong. He clearly is an awesome rider as no one has been able to handle that Ducati like he has. If his mind is in the right place he should be really competitive. I wish him luck and I’ll be glued to the TV at the weekend cheering him on.

I haven’t received anymore details about the Race of Champions in Beijing next month. All I know is we’re 100 per cent committed and ready to go. I get to drive a WRC car which should be fantastic plus a KTM buggy and some other great racing cars. It’ll be a great experience to race against some of the world’s best drivers. It’s something I’m looking forward to, but it will make that busy time of the year even busier.

Features include:

Limited edition TeamVodafone removable handset cover
Exclusive in-car video footage of a Jamie Whincup Bathurst Lap
Exclusive TeamVodafone ring tones and wallpapers
Great Quality Q-VGA Display
FM Radio, Music Player and Bluetooth
3G internet capable

Currently available at participating dick smith, Allphones and Vodafone stores, and also online at store.vodafone.com.au

A handset will be given away each week, beginning on Friday September 25.

To enter, simply give us your most creative answer to this week’s question:

What is the coolest thing about the new Nokia 3120 TeamVodafone handset?

Week 1 competition entries will close at 3pm on Friday October 2. One entry per post please. Members may enter each week but will not be eligible to win more than 1 handset.

There isn’t a huge amount of difference between Phillip Island and Bathurst circuits as far as car set up is concerned. They are both high-speed circuits with a lot of grip so set-up is fairly similar, so we won’t be making major changes, just fine-tuning things. We had a quick car at Phillip Island so we are confident we will have a quick car for Bathurst. Our test day will also include a lot more pit stop and driver change practices. 

I know the Euro boys (Allan Simonsen of Denmark and James Thompson of England are driving the team’s 88 car) are champing at the bit to get to Bathurst and drive on the best circuit in Australia. So is Troy Bayliss. Unfortunately he didn’t get a chance to drive at Phillip Island after mechanical problems. The two-time World Superbikes champion is now retired from motorcycle racing and is loving his switch to cars. I’m sure he will be back at Bathurst and show his talents. He’s also looking to try to race a V8 more often next year.

It is disappointing to see that Queensland Raceway in Ipswich and Barbagallo in Perth are listed as provisional on next year’s calendar. But their facilities really do need some work. We need garages in pit lane instead of bunkers like we have in Perth and Ipswich. Every other circuit is designed to have the cars in pit lane, so why not them? There is also a lack of corporate facilities at these circuits and our sports relies on having first-class facilities for guests and sponsors. It’s like the AFL or NRL with their big grounds and corporate facilities. It makes the sport more professional. Fingers crossed they will both update their facilities because they are great circuits to drive on and the fans deserve to be entertained in quality surroundings.

There has also been some valid criticism of the season starting with a double-header in February in the Mid East. Naturally the Aussie fans don’t want to see the opener offshore. It’s not ideal but if you look at the grand scheme of things it makes sense to do the races together at that time of the year and get them over with. I’m one to speak my mind on all matters whether anyone disagrees or not and I’m the first to say if the wrong call has been made, but I think this is a fantastic improvement to the season. The organisers have made some big calls recently and got a lot of stuff done and they deserve some credit for the effort.

I’ve accepted to represent Australia in the Race of Champions being held in November in Beijing for the first time. What a great honour just to be invited as I will be racing against the world’s best in a variety of different cars and racing disciplines. Some of our competitors look like being Formula One drivers Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button as well as World Rally championship leader Mikko Hirvonen. I hope I can do Australia proud and I hope I can still put in a good performance in Phillip Island straight after. I hope I don’t come back jet-lagged. It’s a risk, but I’d also hate to have knocked back the invitation and look back later and wish I had done it.

Let me explain.

This weekend is a dual-driver endurance event with one driver referred to as driver A and the other as driver B. Driver A gets a 20-minute qualifying session to determine the starting order for their sprint race and driver B gets a separate 20-minute qualifying session for their separate sprint race. So that’s two sprint races with 75 points on offer from each race.

Now here is where it gets a little confusing because one of those races has to include a pit stop for at least two tyres. I’m not sure yet whether that will be Craig (Lowndes) or me doing the stop. It will depend on what is happening in the race. We have plans A, B, C and D for every contingency. Now it gets even more confusing because the results of the two sprint races are added together and that determines the grid position for the two-driver 500km endurance race on the Sunday which is worth 150 points for each winning driver.

So there is still 300 points on offer for the whole weekend just like there is in every round. I like the format, but I can understand it can be confusing for the fans.

Our cars have arrived down here and I’m finally happy with the ergos in Craig’s car which we will campaign for the two endurance rounds at Phillip Island this weekend and Bathurst in October.

I feel a bit guilty because I sent the engineers a long list of things I wanted change to make my job easier, but they’ve now been done and the car is all polished and set to go. The list included things like steering wheel adjustment, a button moved - silly little things which help us on the big day when things are all happening. You know, in the heat of the moment you want everything where you expect it to be so you don’t have to think about hitting the right button, you just do it by instinct or habit.

Which brings me to the 60 Minutes episode last weekend. I was fortunate to be invited back after the segment they did on me last year. This time I was invited to help out in an experiment to see how texting on a mobile phone while driving can affect your abilities. I was called in as a professional driver and they also had a rather new driver there and we had to go through a course while texting.

Although I’m a professional race driver and usually have to deal with making adjustments to roll bars and brakes, with an engineer in my ear and other cars and drivers all around me, trust me it was hard work trying to negotiate the course whilst texting on the phone. It was a real eye opener for me and, I’m sure, thousands of motorists.

As we predicted a few weeks ago, there will be an extra round next year bringing the series up to 16 rounds with an extra race in the Mid East. The full details will be revealed this weekend. I think that’s great. I’m a racer and I want to race cars, so the more events the better.

Instead, we spent our third test day of the year fine-tuning all the ergonomics in the car and practising driver changes for the endurance races. We’re the same size, height and shape so there are no major changes needed, but the cars are getting harder and harder each year to get in and out of.

There are more bars and safety precautions in the car these days which makes driver changes very difficult. I’ve been stretching the hamstrings in preparation over the last couple of weeks. You need to be loose and flexible and almost do the splits just to get in and out. It’s not so bad getting out of the car after a stint racing over the mountain because you are all warmed up and quite flexible. But getting into the car is quite difficult. You land on a hard seat made of carbon composite, you hit your knees on the dashboard, scar your knuckles on something sharp and chip your helmet on the roll bar.

So yesterday was a pretty brutal day physically for us just getting in and out of the car about 100 times. At the end of the day we were pretty bruised and battered.

We will do a heap more practices between now and Phillip Island next week and we really want to be at our maximum for Bathurst.

All those areas where we whacked ourselves against something hard should be nicely callused by then. And our team physiotherapist Chris Brady will be pretty busy. There’s not much he can do about the bruises, but he will be working hard to keep us loose. It hasn’t happened before but it is quite easy to get a cramp or strain a muscle doing a driver change and that would be a tragedy at the start of a driving stint.

Meanwhile, the crew also had a big day practising brake pad changes and tyre changes. We’re all now getting pretty excited about the coming enduro season. You may have seen the ads for Bathurst with Lowndesy running. Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of my three Bathurst wins and I have the trophies sitting at home to remind me. But Brocky was King of the Mountain and Lowndesy was his protege, so that’s ok by me that they feature him in the promotions.

It’s going to be a great few weeks for sport with the coming footy finals and then Bathurst. I’m a Hawthorn fan and my mate Will Davison is an Essendon fan and we played each other last week and the Bombers won so we’re out. But I’m hoping my other favourite team, Storm, will do better in the finals.

I love this time of year. It’s always entertaining to watch champions doing what they do best. And that’s why I will do everything I can to get down to the Tweed this weekend to see the action in Rally Australia. Citroen driver Sebastian Loeb is leading the World Rally Championship and he is at his peak at the moment. Even if I only see him for two seconds as he goes past at Mach 1 it will be well worth the trip.