I am now back in the home country, Australia, eating and drinking all the great Aussie delicacies that I can't get outside of this great place - meat pies, 'twisties' and Oysters Kilpatrick - and getting reacquainted with the other thing they have here and nowhere else - the Aussie V8 Supercar series.

This why I am home, to race for the Ford Performance Racing team, in a Ford Falcon, at Sandown and Bathurst. The last two years, I have driven for the Dick Johnson Racing, and had a great time with the guys there,, but this year I have switched to FPR, which is operated by the same Prodrive company that runs the Aston Martin sportscar programme I drive for in Europe. It simply made good sense to keep it in the family.

I arrived here early to do two days of testing at Philip Island and spend some time with the team. I arrived on the Sunday morning to be greeted by the teams PA, who took me to the factory for a seat fitting. On arrival, I was amazed to see the size of the facility - it looks like an F1 building! Not quite, but close. It even has its own merchandise shop in the factory, which has customers all day every day buying the latest merchandise.

The V8 series is huge over here, and they have really got a great package. It makes you feel that you are missing out on the fun.

However, growth is only so good, and I'd like to say 'keep the good work up, but don't get ahead of yourselves'. I have seen this happen before, and it would be a shame to see the series burst its bubble. There is definitely a bubble going on at the moment, as the money in the series is big by Australian terms, but I just wonder how much this spending can sustain itself. The one thing on their side is that the development of the cars is limited, not like what I do in Europe. But all teams will spend whatever they have got in other areas, and you can see them doing that down here as well.

FPR had recently built a new car for lead driver - and my team-mate for Sandown and Bathurst - Jason Bright, and the Phillip Island test was the first time it had run. I got in it after Jason to get back into the swing of these strange driving machines. I didn't get as much time in the car as I would have liked, which was a shame as these cars are very different to drive than what I am used to. However, we made some good progress and my last run was one that made me happy. I got into a good rhythm and the times were coming down in big chunks. What a difference confidence makes!

I eventually got down to a respectable time considering the amount of laps I got but, earlier in the day, I was having to change my pants as I got into a high-speed tankslapper and was heading straight for the barriers. I was screaming in the helmet 'NO, NO, NO, No, no..... stay on the road!' - which, to the relief of me and the team, I managed to do! As you can imagine, I came straight in.... and said 'let me just settle down before I go back out and try again...'.

I am now in Sydney with my mum, as we both celebrate our birthdays this week. We're 79 and 40.... me being 40, McNish! I know he is on my fan mail and he would of made some smart ass comment!

I also saw my 17-year old son Jayson, who lives in Sydney. He is on his L-plates at the moment, so we went to the Blue Mountains for a drive.... with him driving! I have to say he drove extremely well, but he works with plants and trees at a nursery, so no racing for him....yet!

All the best,

DB