Here I am at Chicago airport, headed for Australia to compete in the Bathurst 1000 V8 race. The airport is busy with people going from place to place, and I wonder if they are travelling as much as I am.
Canada, Australia, UK, Spain, US and now back to Australia - all in 5 weeks. I think my family have put a cardboard cut-out of me in the house so that the kids remember who I am, and so Aussie - the dog - doesn't attack me when I do go home!
I went to Spain to race for the same team that I drove for at Le Mans, Team Modena. They were trying to win the LMS drivers' championship for Antonio Garcia, who needed to win or finish second behind the rival Saleen. Practice went really well, as Antonio lives at the circuit and knows it really well. During the session, he was setting the pace, but the Saleen was really quick as well. Peter Hardman and myself were only really backing Antonio up, as we didn't know the track that well. I knew I had been there before, but I couldn't remember in what! It took Fiona Miller to remind me that it had been in the Panoz LMP07, so no wonder I couldn't remember. I had erased all memory of that car...!
Antonio did the qualifying, and put the Modena Aston second on the grid, which was a good effort. The Saleen was quickest, however, and some six cars were covered by a second. That was the good news. The bad news was that we were then thrown to the back of the grid for a technical issue. Apparently, the rear wing endplate didn't fit in the scrutineers' rear wing box, something that was of no advantage at all, but rules are rules.
Antonio started the race and was trying to catch the leaders of our class. He had to get through all the GT2 cars first though, but did this without a scratch. Just as he was closing on the pack, the pace car came out and picked up the leaders, but Antonio was then caught out as the GT1 cars were in front and they all went to the back of the queue, so we went down a lap.
