A lot of good things came out of the Clipsal 500 for us as a team. The cars showed plenty of speed, we got a good amount of points and Cameron got on the podium with a third place finish in race two.

They were the plusses from the weekend, but the big minus was the way we qualified. We didn’t have the cars set up the way they needed to be and despite being fast at every other time during the weekend, we weren’t when it came to getting the cars to the pointy end of the grid.

Before qualifying we had plenty of speed and didn’t tinker with the car set ups.,For qualifying the track conditions had changed and we didn’t respond in an effective way to them and that cost us when it came to our grid spots for race one.

I had good speed in race one but I began with tyre pressure problems and had to come in early to change all my tyres which put me dropped me well down the order and without a safety car we lost a lot of time. Once we changed the tyres and had some with a different pressure I was able to get a lot more out of the car.

Race two saw me starting from 18th on the grid and at one stage I was able to get up to 8th and was passing a lot of people on the road, which after a lean season last year was a good feeling.

I was passing a lot of the guys cleanly but I made a slight error when I went to pass Jason Bright and ended up making contact into turn one and ripping out the tyre valve. I then had to limp the car around the entire circuit losing a huge amount of time in the process.

After the incident with Brighty I realised if I have to work on one thing for this season it is my race craft. With the pace the cars have I am going to be in a position to pass more cars and I need to make those moves cleanly and not be as overzealous as I was making the move in question.

I was exceptionally happy with the car and although I am not a factory supported driver for Holden I have to say it felt good to be back in a Holden, especially one which was so fast.

It was a weekend full of smiles for Brad and Kim. They were nervous leading up to the weekend, but for now it appears the decision to switch and make use of the partnership with Walkinshaw Performance Racing has paid off. If they had have stuck with Ford and had another season like 2007 it would have been hard to come back from.

Another bonus for the team was the 11th hour deal with WOW Sight and Sound. After WPS folded they wanted to remain involved and they are on board with Cameron. We are now one of an increasing number of teams with split liveries including Britek, HSV, FPR and SBR.

I think it’s a good thing for the sport as more sponsors means more money for the sport and also that the series is getting more support.

There weren’t too many problems with the new guys on the grid either. Thankfully I wasn’t around them for long except for at the beginning of race one when Michael Caruso caused a bit of chaos by hitting me sending me into Shane Price and Shane into Marcus Marshall, but I think Michael will have learnt his lesson and will probably be more cautious into the opening corners from now on.

While the new guys were pretty good when it came to driving clean races there was plenty of contact from some of the experienced drivers which possibly stemmed from comments made by Tomas Mezera who is now the Driving Standards Observer.

Tomas told all the drivers he was “open to some more fair, hard, rubbing racing”, and that he wouldn’t’ t have a problem with fair contact.

I’m all for it, but with 28 very competitive guys going around the track it seems he has given an inch and everyone wants to take a mile.

Our goal was to have a car in the top 10 and one just outside it and we reached that goal, hopefully we can improve further in the next couple of rounds and get plenty of points in the early part of the season.

I have to take my hat off to Jamie Whincup, he certainly looks like he is at one with his car and is obviously full of confidence and has carried on his good form from last season.

I’m a fan of the new points system. It should make for a closer run series for all drivers points wise with everyone getting a chance to get some points. It also means fans will see cars out there for longer with drivers not packing it in because they are lower than 15th in a race.

The fans pay good money to see us race and they deserve to get value for money.

At this stage I would like to say my thoughts go out to the family and friends of Ashley Cooper after the tragedy which occurred on the weekend.

Off the track, Mish and I went for our 19 week scan and we were extremely excited to see our little baby who we have nicknamed ‘Nacho’ with ten fingers, ten toes and a beating heart.

Our baby is due on the 21st of July which is the Monday after Ipswich, so hopefully ‘Nacho’ won’t come early as the birth of my child is not something I ever want to miss.

Jonesy