Indy weekend didn’t go to plan for me as I was plagued with car problems from the beginning. The same issues that effected Cameron and I at Bathurst were again prevalent in the cars, especially mine.

The short version of the story is we couldn’t get the maximum use out of the front end of the car and had a lack of power and grip as a result.

We will be having a look at the issues before Bahrain and have a feeling the problems there could be related to the steering setup.

Hopefully it’s just a matter of tweaking it to get the car back to the setup we had earlier in the year when we were pacey and we can improve from there. Even Cameron said my car’s steering felt really light compared to his WOW Commodore at Bathurst.

Race one on the weekend saw me move up a couple of places to 19th and I continued that trend in race two on Sunday morning but ended up having to park the car after a brand new radiator hose popped a hole.

I was doing well and up to 16th when I had to park the car or risk destroying the engine. The radiator hose popped the hole on lap four but on lap 23 I dropped a lot of water and the engine started overheating.

Unfortunately a $2 part wrecked my race, but sometimes that happens It may also be true that when it rains, it pours. Luck certainly doesn’t seem to be on my side on the track right now.

Race three saw me start the race well but along with eight other cars I received a drive through penalty for cutting the chicane on lap one when Greg Murphy had his accident.

A lot of us decided it was safest to take that action and we all got a drive through penalty for not redressing our track position.

It’s not a call I agree with as I believe every one of us was avoiding an accident. I didn’t redress my position in regards to Jack Perkins, but I don’t know what I was supposed to do. Jack wasn’t in my mirrors and I can’t exactly pull over and wait for him to go back past me in that situation!

Jason Bright was quite vocal about the penalty after the race and I agree with him when he says it’s very hard to redress your position when you are in a pack of cars early in the race.

A lot of talk leading up to the race once again surrounded Mark Skaife and what he will be doing next year. If the rumour mill is correct then it would see Skaife step aside and Will Davison go to HRT.

If that was the case then I think it would be a great career move for Will, who has certainly proven his worth at Dick Johnson Racing.

As for the Indy Car race, it was fantastic to see Australians and to a lesser extent a Kiwi dominate proceedings. Will Power once again did very well to be on pole and lead the race for a period of time.

However it was another Australian, Ryan Briscoe in his Penske who was able to take out the race and become the first Aussie to win at home.

Currently there is a rumour the Indy Cars may not be back here next year and that’s a huge shame if it’s true. The alternatives would be a stand alone V8 Supercar round or an adjoining one with an A1 Grand Prix.

I however would prefer to see the Indy Cars stay on the streets of Surfers!

I’m now just going to try and soak up the sun here on the Gold Coast before heading back home to Albury. I may also get to see Australia play England in the Rugby League World Cup this weekend in Melbourne. It was great to see the Kangaroos flog the Kiwis last night.

Jonesy

As I write this I am gearing up for a big weekend in the sun at Indy.
 
The concrete canyon on the Gold Coast is a favourite weekend of mine and just the place for me to get my season back on track after two consecutive DNFs in the enduros.
 
In my book two crashes are [...]

What can I say? At the end of the day I am very disappointed at the way our weekend ended. Fencing the car for the second straight event in a row isn’t ideal, especially at Phillip Island and Bathurst, our two biggest races of the year.
 
The incident at Bathurst was an odd one and the [...]

Last Wednesday I went to Winton for our pre Bathurst test, which also happened to be a shakedown for the car after the Phillip Island incident.
 
It was great to get back in the car again! I just felt that I wanted to get back in and drive it as soon as possible and straight away [...]