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Welcome to my offical drivers blog of 2011. Through this blog you will be able to follow my success as I compete in the 2011 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series in Australia. My journey began in the winter of 2010 when I discovered I was lucky enough to secure a drive with the Matt Stone Racing Team and race in the 2011 Fujitsu V8 Supercars Series. Matt Stone Racing (MSR) was established in 2011 and is run by Matt Stone, son of Jim Stone of Stone Brothers Racing
It all became very real when I took part in my first press conference during the V8 Supercars Race at Yas Marina Circuit in February 2011. Together with Tony Cochrane and Ross Stone, we offically annouced my move into the Australian race series. Not only is it best way to get into the main championship, but its been my goal to race in this series since I began racing back in 2002.
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I made the big move to Australia at the end of February. Luckily for me, MSR are located in the Gold Coast, which is just south of Brisbane. I moved in with Matt Stone and began my preparations for my new season. I was able to have one test day at the Queensland Raceway before I made my debut in the Adelaide Race in March.
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Through this test day, I was able to get to know the team, the car and the tyres. I also had to adapt to a new style of driving to suit my 2005 Ford Falcon. The team did a great job to get the car ready and we got through a whole days running, around 100 laps, with no problems with the car.
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From the great results of my testing, my goal was to be in the top 10 in the first race at Adelaide. I was extremly happy with how it went and I was really looking forward to the first race of the year.
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With the test going by very quickly it was back to the Gold Coast to get the car ready for Adelaide. Another fortunate thing about the test day was that we came away from it with no damage to the car, so there wasn’t too much work to be done.
With the guys looking after the car, I was able to work with the fitness trainer from SBR (Stone Brothers Racing, our sister team in the V8 Supercars) and the other drivers, including Shane Van Gisbergen, Tim Slade and Alex Davison. Training with the V8 drivers is great because I can compare my fitness levels with theirs and know where I have to be. Even though our races are 30 minutes long, compared to 2 hours in the V8’s, training with the other drivers means my fitness level is matching theirs. I can now be ready to race any distance if required.
So with one test under our belts and fitness training most days, I felt really prepared for the first race. The truck was on its way to Adelaide (only a 2 day drive) and we were getting a plane from Brisbane Airport. After picking up our rental cars, we made our way to the track and I got to walk around it for the first time. Adeaide is a very famous street circuit and After studying the track by watching race footage on youtube and previous Fujitsu races on the tv, I was excited to race on my first street circuit. Everybody I had spoken to warned me about turn 8, so on my track walk I stuidied the corner further and I couldnt wait to get out on track to try it out.
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The Fujitsu series has two practice sessions on Friday, with qaulifying and one race on Saturday and one on Sunday. The two practice sessions went by without any problems and from the first few laps I felt really comfortable in the car and with the track, especially the famous turn 8. The team and I worked on the set up and started to close the gap to the top runners. By the end of the qualifing session, I was P19 out of 29. The team and I though we could have gotten P14 so we i was disspointed with the result but i knew i could race the guys in front so i was really looking forward to the race. The team and I had aimed for P14, but with my fast pace I knew I could battle my way up to the front, so I was really looking forward to the race.
Saturday Race One: I started from P19 and the race began really well. From a great start and impressive first lap I had made it up to P15. After four laps, I progressed to P13, so the race was looking really good. On lap ten, I came down really hard on a kerb on the apex of turn two and it bent the front right shock. The car started to loose braking performance and handeling, but I kept going and managed to bring the car home in 18th place.
With my first race in Australia not going exactly how I imagined it, I was really pumped up for the second race on Sunday. I really wanted to demonstrate our fast pace and show that we were able to compete with the top guys in the championship.
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Sunday Race Two: I started from P18 and after another good start, flying first lap, I was making great progress through the field and climbed up to P12. The race was going great and with the car starting to change, I was also making changes to the roll bars. I was really getting used to the way the car works and reacts to the changes. Nearly every lap after that I was passing a car into turn 9 and gaining more places. I was now up to P9 overall and looking to have my first top ten finish. After a last lap battle for P8, I finished an impressive P9. The team and I were both really happy as we had reached our goal of finishing in the top ten. I finished the race really strong and showed we had very fast pace, with our laptimes being the same as P4.
So after a great first weekend I can’t wait to get to Perth for the second round of the championship, on the 29th of April. With the strong pace we showed in Adelaide and with some more testing coming up, im really hopefull we can finish well inside the top 10 again. Thanks for reading and I will be sending out my new blog after my race weekend in Perth.
