Hi Guys,
Indy was a massive weekend for all involved, huge crowds, great weather (besides Saturday), and of course great racing!
For me, Indy was all about learning a new circuit, a circuit that takes no prisoners and is quite happy to devour your car and spit it out the other end! I found Indy a very challenging circuit, it is extremely narrow and very hard on brakes. By about lap 3 my brakes would get that hot that no matter how hard I pressed the brake pedal the car would not pull up any quicker, that takes some getting used to! Probably the most difficult thing was trying to stay out of trouble, I think I had a magnet on my car that attracted trouble! In the end, although our results didn't show much, we came out of the race meeting with a straight car and I gained alot of experience on the Indy circuit which will hold me in good stead when I go back in 09.
Ral and Jade asked what keeps me cool in the hot conditions in Queensland and Bahrain, I used my cool suit all weekend and I will definitely use it in Bahrain also. In the car the temperature is usually 20 degrees hotter than ambient, so at Indy the inside of the car was reaching around 45 degrees! The cool suit helps to keep my core temp down which cools my body really well. Basically I wear a vest that has piping running all over the front and back, we have an ice box in the car and water is pumped through the ice box and into the vest.
So now the race team only have a few days to get the car ready and packed so it can be flown over to Bahrain. The cars get loaded onto space frames to travel overseas and all of our equipment gets packed into a container, so basically we only take what we absolutely need. It's a tough schedule at the moment and the boys are under the pump big time!
In big news today, Mark Skaife has announced he will retire at the end of this season! To me thats a bit of a shame as I think he is a true legend of our sport, not to mention an icon and he is still very much a competitive driver. It will be interesting to see whether he stays in the sport as an endurance driver and what involvement he will have with HRT, or whether he decides to explore other avenues in life. I'm sure over the next few months we will learn more about what Mark will do.
So I leave for Bahrain on Sunday afternoon, which means I will have a fews days over there to get used to the time zone and also check out some sight seeing. I have heard that there is a massive water park that is worth seeing, that might be my first stop!
Once again this will be another new track for me to learn, however I don't think Bahrain will be quite as difficult as Indy, there is plenty of run off area so I should be able to find the limits without choking on concrete!
Wish me luck
Cheers
TD
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Bathurst '08'
Firstly I just want to say hi and welcome to my blog, please feel free to leave me a message.
Well, well, well, what can I say? Sunday's race went perfect for us, well up until lap 159 anyway. I was so disappointed that I made a small error entering turn 2. If we were at any other circuit I would have been able to get away with it. That's Bathurst though I guess, it demands loads of respect, as soon as you relax.. bang.. it will bite you, and hard! Luckily for us the car wasnt too badly damaged and the boys will have no trouble getting the car fixed before we head off to Indy next weekend!
On a whole though Bathurst was really enjoyable, our car was a jet all weekend, both Jason and myself loved the car, which is a real credit to the team for their preparation. Since our problems at Phillip Island, its been head down, bum up to make sure we put in a better effort at our biggest race of the year, Bathurst.
A lot of people have been asking whether I'm spewing about crashing with only a few laps to go while running so competitively in 6th place. I have to say..... yeah ,I was pretty dirty with myself about making such a small error, but I'm so rapt that we put up such a good showing up until then. As a team we can take so much away from this meeting to build on, which is what we will do.
The 1000 is such a demanding race on teams, drivers and cars, that you need a bit of luck to go your way to avoid any problems. During the race Jason and I were lucky enough to stay out of trouble and progress through the field, we had great pitstops, and our strategy worked on the day. One big issue that came out of the day was all the tyre dramas, Dunlop need to sort out what's happening with those tyres. We didnt have any tyres let go during the weekend, but for many teams, they had several. A driver needs to have the confidence that the tyres will hold up, especially around a place like Bathurst.
So Indy here we come! I haven't raced at the Indy circuit before so it will quite interesting to see what the tracks like, its looks pretty tight! I'm hoping I can get used to the circuit fairly quickly and have a strong weekend. It looks like such a great party atmosphere I cant wait to get up there and hit the track!
I just want to thank everyone that showed us great support over the Bathurst weekend and since I have been home. It's amazing how many people saw the race!
Wish me luck for the gold coast!
Cheers
TD
Well, well, well, what can I say? Sunday's race went perfect for us, well up until lap 159 anyway. I was so disappointed that I made a small error entering turn 2. If we were at any other circuit I would have been able to get away with it. That's Bathurst though I guess, it demands loads of respect, as soon as you relax.. bang.. it will bite you, and hard! Luckily for us the car wasnt too badly damaged and the boys will have no trouble getting the car fixed before we head off to Indy next weekend!
On a whole though Bathurst was really enjoyable, our car was a jet all weekend, both Jason and myself loved the car, which is a real credit to the team for their preparation. Since our problems at Phillip Island, its been head down, bum up to make sure we put in a better effort at our biggest race of the year, Bathurst.
A lot of people have been asking whether I'm spewing about crashing with only a few laps to go while running so competitively in 6th place. I have to say..... yeah ,I was pretty dirty with myself about making such a small error, but I'm so rapt that we put up such a good showing up until then. As a team we can take so much away from this meeting to build on, which is what we will do.
The 1000 is such a demanding race on teams, drivers and cars, that you need a bit of luck to go your way to avoid any problems. During the race Jason and I were lucky enough to stay out of trouble and progress through the field, we had great pitstops, and our strategy worked on the day. One big issue that came out of the day was all the tyre dramas, Dunlop need to sort out what's happening with those tyres. We didnt have any tyres let go during the weekend, but for many teams, they had several. A driver needs to have the confidence that the tyres will hold up, especially around a place like Bathurst.
So Indy here we come! I haven't raced at the Indy circuit before so it will quite interesting to see what the tracks like, its looks pretty tight! I'm hoping I can get used to the circuit fairly quickly and have a strong weekend. It looks like such a great party atmosphere I cant wait to get up there and hit the track!
I just want to thank everyone that showed us great support over the Bathurst weekend and since I have been home. It's amazing how many people saw the race!
Wish me luck for the gold coast!
Cheers
TD
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