The V8 category seems to be growing on all levels be it participants, spectators, sponsors, TV ratings - what do you think has contributed to this success? Without a doubt the largest single contributor has been the fact that we've got this very excellent category, Holden vs Ford, where the rules are simple. It's not an expensive category and as a result of that we now have many people buying these cars. The growth of the cars has been enormous and what comes with the growth is competition and as a result of competition we now have a good competitive series of races.
You're an engineer for many of your competitors - how does that work and who are your customers? I run an engineering business to run my race team. We use my race team to display our various skills in engineering and we have many customers as a result. I'm already racing the other half of the field and if I have to sell a component to someone I have to race against well, it's not a big deal.
How do you prepare for a new track such as Canberra? At Canberra I did have a drive around the day before, just to get the general layout of the track and other than the first practice session that's the general extent of preparation.
What do you think of the Canberra street race? The Canberra event is superb, but to be fair it has a few glitches. The spectators couldn't see properly and the actual race track is too narrow and far too bumpy. The track wasn't up to scratch and it needs to be fixed. The track is contracted for another 2 years and in that time some areas will be widened and some will remain the same. It's a major problem and we really need to do something about it. We were lucky to get away with it without any major accidents.
Is Canberra the most appropriate place for a reverse grid? There are many of us in the industry who wanted the reverse grid and those who didn't. But I think it's an answer to some of our processional racing. The days of the fastest man starting at the front are a throw back to the dark ages and I don't see any reason why it should remain the same. But there's no doubt Winton or Oran Park would have been better than the narrow track at Canberra.
What happens at a test day? You have to notify the appropriate authority a fortnight in advance. You have to pay for a scrutineer to front up on the day who monitors what you do. On an official test day you still have to use your official tyres, and be subject to random audits, and if you're caught with more tyres than you're suppose to have then you're in deep trouble. The whole reason of the test day is to reduce costs and make a more level playing field, which in my opinion it has done. You use your experience and your engineering skills to determine what makes the race car go fast on the varying tracks, the slow tracks, fast tracks, bumpy tracks etc. You need to consider different technical adjustments like springing rate, shock absorber setting etc. and you try to pick the optimum based on your testing and experience. The tyres that you use at a race are the only tyres that you can use in testing and once you have accumulated a maximum of 40 tyres you have to start giving the dead ones back to Bridgestone, because we actually only lease these tyres. We have to account for every tyre and this is done through serial numbers.
How is your car performing in the season so far? My car is performing well, but the infrastructure around it is falling over. Some of it is driver induced, some of it's luck of the draw, some of it's unaccounted for, and I wish it would all go away.
You've sold 2 of your cars, one with the new chassis. What is the plan for new cars and what will you be racing at Bathurst? Each year we try to sell our cars, mostly the second hand cars we have been running the year before. We have sold the car I've been racing this year up to Winton, to a NZ team. Russell's current car will run for the remaining season but it has also been sold to a NZ customer. The new car in the workshop will be our Bathurst car and Russell's will remain the spare car. There's also a second Bathurst car which is last years Bathurst car.
What do you consider the most important aspect of engine development? You've got to have sufficient horsepower but the biggest and single most important factor is reliability. You must get certain life out of each engine and in our case it's 2000km.
What advice would you give to a young gun trying to get a drive in the series - how do you recommend they go about it? Young blokes have now got an excellent opportunity with the large growth in the requirement of good drivers, and for those drivers to get anywhere they've got to work out how to display skills to team owners like myself and others. They've got to go through the process, they've got to demonstrate they can beat anyone else. A usual way of starting is through karting and then move up the ranks slowly. It's easy to say all that, but it does require sponsors and money, but that's just the challenges of today's motorsport.
You introduced the new double roll bar this year, has it benefited? I've never referred to it as a double roll bar, but certainly this year for the first race in Russell's car, we introduced a more torsionally rigid race car chassis to where it was almost twice as stiff as our predecessors. It incorporated two roll over hoops and a diagonal bar across the windscreen. It generated a fair bit of controversy amongst our competitors, but at the end of the day it was deemed perfectly legal and now they've all copied.
How do you feel about your son jumping into your shoes? I take a size 9 and Jack takes a size 5 so it's going to be a long time before he fits into them. The best drivers come from individuals who want to succeed through their own best efforts and rarely does a race driver come from a dad who wants a son to go racing. In Jack's case he's going to work out himself if he wants to race and then overcome all the obstacles that any other young bloke would have to overcome.
Any news on when you're retiring? I'll retire when I'm old.
What will you be doing when you retire from racing? There are many things to do when I retire. The engineering business and the team management is a massive job and that will require all my attention. So nothing will really alter other than that I'll have another guy driving instead of me.
