After the long break between races, I was really looking forward to getting to Salt Lake City. The Miller Park Raceway is a superb race track in the middle of the salt flats, spectacular scenery with snow-capped mountains surrounding the area - and a wind howling through the valley that would power the world's electricity in one day..!

The Highcroft team benefited from the break by catching their breath after a gruelling schedule of three street races in five weeks. Miller Park is no street race. This is a fast 23-turn road course which is extremely technical and very demanding on driver and machine. In fact, it is the longest road course in the US at 4.5 miles.

Track time at this place is crucial so, of course, things didn't go as well as we would have liked in practice. The first day we had gear selection problems and Stefan only got 15 minutes out on the track, just enough time to check the gear ratios were okay and get some kind of idea on the balance. I was scheduled to drive as well, but was a spectator watching everyone else pound around the track.

The next day was practice and qualifying and it didn't go that well either, as I was in the car and lost 30 minutes due to another problem. It was enough time to check the car and make a couple of set-up changes to give some kind of direction to get some speed out of it. We were a bit off the pace as the Dyson and Penske Porsches had tested the week before and were setting the benchmarks.

We started to make some progress, but we were still two seconds off Penske's Porsches. It was Stefan's turn to qualify and I felt for him, as I had had a better run of tracks were we could do well - like getting pole in the last race. Well, for a few seconds, I thought the old boy had done it. He jumped to P1 with a time three seconds faster than he had done before, knocking Bryan Herta off the top spot. I thought 'where the hell did that time come from' and was jumping for joy, but it was short-lived I am afraid, as others also went two seconds faster than they did before, and the Penske Porsches dominated the front row. Still, Stefan was fifth and that was a great effort, as we lost so much track time. It was the quickest we had been up until then.

Stefan started the race, and it was a bit manic going into the first corner as the Penskes found themselves way behind as they got swamped. It does seem that, if you are on the front row, you get passed by the guys behind, just as happened to me at Houston. I blame Dario Franchitti, as he jumped the start so much at Long Beach that we are now under closer scrutiny.

Stefan fought well and the racing was really close. Things were coming our way as Stefan came in and I took over for a double stint. We made some changes in the pit-stop to help the car, but I think it didn't quite work as I couldn't get the front to get into the corner. But I knew it would get better, so I had to be patient. I started to catch Andy Wallace and we had a good battle together, but it was hard to get past. The car was getting better and better though, so I thought now was the time.

I got close enough on the long main straight to get a good slipstream and pulled out at the last second to pass him down the inside. I was feeling proud of that move as it was a bit tight, but Andy was the pro and had to give way. I then pulled away by over a second a lap as the car was now hooked up. The team said I had to push like hell as we were running a good third, and I was ready to give it a go, but, on the very next lap, as I came out of the turn five hairpin and went up the gears, there was a BANG from the rear of the car as the gearbox broke.

I got back to the pits, but the race for a podium was gone. The team had a look at the problem, but not much could be done, so I waited in the car till the end of the race and went out slowly to finish the race and complete 70 per cent of the total distance just to get some points.