Italy: January

2010 has started off with a heap of motorsport involvement without actually turning a wheel! We did a couple of motorsport related things during our 10th wedding anniversary trip to Italy. Oh, and we bought a new race car!

In Italy we took a couple of days at Parma to visit Dallara at Varano de Melegari and drive a Formula 1 simulator at Modena.

David Beck at Dallara was very generous with his time showing us as much of the whole place as he could, given the secrecy surrounding their involvement in the Campos Formula 1 car. Anton Stipinovich was also enormously generous with the time he gave me in his highly impressive F1 simulator at Modena. I had three, twenty minute sessions in a modern F1 car at Monza (where I actually drove in 2008) and got down to 1min 30sec. I could have had as much time as I wanted, but a bit of motion sickness initiated by the chicane at the end of the pit straight caused me to leave it at that.

Many thanks to both David and Anton for their kindness, hospitality and generosity.

During our stay in Firenze (Florence) for our wedding anniversary celebrations, we took a day trip to Bologna to visit Ducati. Their factory and museum tour is second to none. Their manufacturing philosophy is similar to that of Porsche where one person builds each engine and signs his name to it. Another pair then assembles the complete bike. Each bike is than run on a rolling road, emissions tested and then crated for delivery.

The museum houses a very complete collection where all examples of Ducati's road and racing bikes are represented.

We have in place a new racing plan for 2010. The Van Diemen RF03K has been sold and replaced by a Dallara F304 Opel Spiess Formula 3 race car. The primary plan is to slowly come to terms with the new car and defend the 2009 racing car championship title. Secretly, we really want to pursue the National F3 scholarship championship. Additional budget will enable that to happen.

After a shake-down on the Morgan Park short circuit on 3rd March, we took the car back to race over the weekend 13-14 March. It was a successful outing against Ben Gersekowski in his F304 with a pole, two firsts and a second place. A solid start to defending the 2009 title.

The car looks terrific on the circuit but we were a bit slower than In the F301 the November before. More seat time will fix that!

Testing 14 April 2010

We took the car back to Morgan Park on 14 April with a slightly different set up. I didn't feel confident that the car would turn in during the first round. Gary Sturdy worked with Brett to resolve that and the result was a return to a 59 second lap time!

National Round Phillip Island 1-2 May 2010

Due to the very generous offer made by Mark Rundle of Team BRM to take the car to Phillip Island and back for me, we entered the round and raced. I had business commitments that didn't allow me to practice on Friday, so we were a walk-up start for qualifying on Saturday. 18 months away from Phillip Island is too long for me to be quick out of the box, so we just made little steps over the weekend to achieve a personal best lap time of 1minute, 31.7seconds. Again, the car looks great in its revised livery and ran flawlessly

In case you missed Speedweek on Sunday 16th May, they featured the Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship round from Phillip Island.

Compared to round 1, round 2 was a bit of a disaster. It rained on Saturday for qualifying. That was OK in itself, but a bit of a moment on the track resulted in the car becoming a mud cake and me losing most of the session getting back onto the track. My one clear lap was enough to qualify on the front row next to Ben's F303.

The racing was also a bit of a disaster. I fluffed the start of race 1 on Saturday afternoon. The car's battery failed when we went to start it for race 2 Sunday morning. The guys worked really fast to change the battery to get me on the grid just in time to start from the back.

Anyway, the upside was that it made me work super hard on the track to work through the field in both cases to finish as best as I could. Race 1 in the rain was interesting, I can tell you! Race 3 was a bit better where I at least got the car off the line and had a good tussle with Ben at the front.

Overall a second placing for the weekend and relegation to second place in the championship a few points behind Ben.

Straight off the back of racing on the weekend, I conducted a driver training day at Queensland Raceway on the following Monday.

I had ten keen participants for the second running of my Car Control and Safe Performance Driving course. The course is pitched at providing owners of cars the opportunity to improve their driving knowledge and skill and stretch the legs of their prized possession on the track.

We did some classroom theory and then some braking and slalom exercises before getting onto the track with myself and three very seasoned driving instructors available to provide on-board coaching as required.

Apart from one mishap, everyone had a great day and is keen to come back for more. A big thank you to Queensland Raceway for providing the venue and to my instructors Tristan Hughes, Luke Page and Josh Coote for assisting me and sharing their expertise with the group.

Round 3 at Morgan Park was a bit of a mixed bag of fortune, but ended with a good result overall.

First up it was wet on Friday practice so there wasn't much to be gained from spending a heap of time on the track that day.

I was really feeling that qualifying Saturday morning was going to end up as a horror story due to a couple of offs during the session; however, I managed to do sufficiently well enough to be quickest and gain pole position for race 1 that afternoon.

Race 1 went well enough with Blake Varney finding his way around very well and pushing me all of the way to a win for me. Ben Gersekowski had some problems similar to those I had last round but his car just wouldn't start for race 1 at all.

Sunday morning was a different story. I started from P1 with Blake in P2. Blake was just ahead after the drag race to turn 1 but turned in quite severely causing contact between his right rear wheel and my left front. The result was that we both went off. We both got going again. I continued to finish fourth. Blake took a tour into the pits for a quick car check and finished further down the order.

Ben just managed to win the race with a last ditch dash over the line. Luckily my car only suffered some scuffing to that front wheel and a broken wing end plate.

Race 3 was pretty full-on resulting in a 1-2-3 for Ben then Blake and then me. Overall I had done enough over the weekend to win and regain my slight lead in the state championship.

The Shannon's National Series came to Morgan Park in August. It was one of those 'must do' events, in particular because it was staged on the new extended Morgan Park circuit layout.

I must say that the boys of the Warwick District Sporting Car Club did a terrific job in preparing the new circuit and staging the national event.

The new circuit layout is terrific. It retains the technically challenging parts of the old circuit and then adds a high speed section that really lets us stretch the legs of the F3's. There was a field of around 12 cars. It is a pity that my on-board camera played up over the weekend. I can't show you a good lap of the new circuit. I will soon enough though with the final round of the state championships coming up in November.

Prancing Horse Drive Day August 2010

Last weekend of August saw Mary and me driving along coast and near hinterland roads at the outskirts of Sydney in a wonderful selection of four Ferraris. Yes, for Ferraris. What a treat that was!!

The boys at Prancing Horse at Marrickville in Sydney run a terrific day. You set off in four cars with eight drivers following the Alfa Romeo GT lead car. There are eight stops along the way, including a great lunch stop at the coast, so that each driver gets to drive each car.

Oh, and the cars? Immaculate examples of an F328 (Thomas Magnum PI), an F355 manual, anF360 F1 paddle shift AND an F430 F1 paddle shift. All cars were exceptional examples of the model and were a hoot to drive, each in their own particular way.

This Prancing Horse Drive Day is a definite entry on the “must do” list for anyone. Contact the boys at www.prancinghorse.com.au or call them on 1300 307 050.

Eastern Creek September 2010

Mid September saw us at Eastern Creek for the Shannon's round down there. It was a great weekend. Shannon's do a great job with the series and look after the F3's very well.

In many ways, I prefer Eastern Creek to Phillip Island. Turn 1 flat entering at 227kmh is interesting to say the least. I did a pretty good job down there over all, but could have been just a bit quicker. More time in the car will fix that.

I always have a huge nostalgia moment when I go to Lakeside. I was there as a kid in the mid 60's watching Graham Hill win the Australian Grand Prix ahead of Jackie Stewart who set pole and fastest lap of the race at 55.5 seconds. On the 2009 page you can see the Fiesta Formula Ford lapping at the same pace compared with the F1 cars of that wonderful early era.

Naturally I was looking forward to taking the F3 there; it did not disappoint!! The car is breathlessly fast around Lakeside. It was quite effortless to manage 50 second laps. A bit of a push will easily achieve times in the high 40's.

The car was a dream to drive. I just placed as well as I could and let it do the work. It rewarded me handsomely. I cannot begin to describe how terrific it feels to drive the car on a fast and flowing circuit like Lakeside. Watch the footage and come for a ride!