We don't have our own house any more when we come back to Australia at the moment. We rented our place out and have to bum accommodation with our parents - either Sandra's in Victoria or mine in South Australia. It's funny how, no matter how old you are or get, they still treat us like kids when we are there. I'm sure it's the same all over.
We had a test at Phillip Island over Easter on the Saturday and Sunday before the race. Normally when you get to the island it takes a while to wind up to speed but my fourth lap was in the 1min 36secs bracket, which was encouraging. The test on day one was all about getting the best settings and getting a base line so that on day two we could throw the new engine and pipe at it and see if it made any difference. There was no chance of using the new parts for the race as they were experimental and for the future but I was keen to make sure we were heading in the right direction.
My best time on day one was a low 35 after 83 laps. With the new engine my second lap of the day was quicker than I had gone on day one. From that point on it only got faster and I had to start scheming up ideas on how we could use the new parts for the race. I knew it would be hard to use the engine as we only had one engine - with two riders - so I came up with the idea of flipping coins (double headed of course!) I was even willing to fight Garry for it in a boxing match – I am bigger than him - but in the end there was no option but to revert to the old stuff for the race.
