IF I was a betting man – and I’m not – I still could not have predicted the weekend of surprises in New Zealand.

We were surprised by our qualifying result despite being sent out first in drizzling conditions, we were surprised by the brake failure we had on Sunday and we were surprised by the exclusion of three drivers from the final results.

About the only thing that wasn’t a surprise was my teammate Jamie’s continuing good form.

I started the weekend in sixth in the championship points and went up to fourth after a good result on the Saturday, but then came crashing down to eighth at the end of the round.

I had a great start on Saturday and in the middle of the race the car balance changed slightly, but then it came good with some adjustments in the last pit stop and we had a great battle trying to catch Tander and Courtney near the finish. So I was pretty confident going into Sunday’s race.

We were fifth on the grid and had a good start with a really strong car that my race engineer Jeromy Moore had adjusted to suit the extra rubber and grip on the track.

Our set-up was close to perfect. It was easy to drive and predictable.
But after the first safety car it started getting a long brake pedal and ultimately I had to pit to get it fixed when we ran out of brake fluid. I’m still unsure about how that happened and where the leak was.

Once we bled that out and resumed the race, the car felt strong again, but we’d lost several precious laps.

We finished 22nd, but when three cars were excluded for technical breaches, we ended up 19th.

The stewards excluded Frosty and Richards’s Falcons because they had the rear rotors on the wrong sides.

Jamie was in that situation a couple of years ago when the team accidentally put the wrong rotors on at Eastern Creek. So we’ve been there and done that.

It’s one of those issues where they will never make the same mistake twice.
I’m not sure if it was done on purpose or not to gain a benefit, but it certainly wasn’t a winning recipe.

Anyway, it caused a bit of a shake-up in the points.

The fact that there was so much movement at the top of the leader board, including Garth leaping into sixth from outside the top 10, just shows how close and competitive this championship is.

I may be in eighth, but I’m only 90 points off third.
What is important now is consistency, not just a victory here or there.

Jamie is showing everyone what that is all about, however Garth is getting closer, Courtney has shown good speed, Frosty has been a bit up and down lately, Caruso is showing good form and does well on street circuits and

Shane van Gisbergen had shown great form up until this weekend which was a surprise on his hometown circuit. Maybe it was just nerves.

I certainly won’t be nervous when I hit the track at Ipswich next weekend.(April 30-May 1)

We have a home ground advantage in that we know the track and the weather, but history will show that people coming up from down south have always done well here and beaten us in our own backyard.

It will be the first time this year on the soft tyre with the whole round run on them, so that will be interesting.

I was part of the initial soft tyre testing a couple of years ago and we and a few others have re-run old soft tyres here in testing, but we haven’t run a new soft tyre here for a while.

As I said at the start, I’m not a betting man and I don’t know many of the other drivers or personnel who are.

If I go to the Crown Casino I would be unlikely to play. I’d be happy just to watch others lose their money. I don’t follow the V8 betting odds but I know fans can bet on pole, fastest laps winners, etc.

The betting side of the sport is apparently bigger than what it was five years ago. I can understand the problems Brendan Fevola has had with betting and I applaud his efforts to seek help.

Having an addiction is bad enough, but if it’s out of control and hurting the people around you, you have got to do something about it.

Of course, all V8 drivers are banned from betting on our sport, but I don’t think gambling is a problem at all. We are very conscious of it.
Touch wood, V8 Supercars is pretty clean in all regards.