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IN THE COCKPIT: Lee Holdsworth, Darwin V8s
This event was massive for me in a way that was different to any other event that I’d been to. Instead of flying in I caught the train. Yes, the train.
Lee Holdsworth  |  Posted June 20, 2012  
Lee Holdsworth's trip TO Darwin was far more memorable than his race AT Darwin... (Photo: IRWIN RACING)
Holdsworth's V8 Blog on SPEED.com


What a massive weekend of motor sport; the Le Mans 24-Hour race, MotoGP, Indycar and NASCAR were on and the V8 Supercars were running back home in Australia.

After a few weekends off we were racing in Darwin, which is Australia’s northern-most capital city. When we raced in Perth last month I explained that it took four days to drive the equipment there, it’s about a three and a half day drive from IRWIN Racing’s Gold Coast base to Darwin.

This event was massive for me in a way that was different to any other event that I’d been to. Instead of flying in I caught the train. Yes, the train.

I flew from Brisbane to Adelaide, and with my teammate Tim Slade, we travelled on the world-famous Ghan up to Darwin.
Holdsworth, left, and teammate Tim Slade, right, took a different mode of transportation to the most recent V8 race. (Photo: IRWIN RACING)

The Ghan is luxury on train tracks; think of over 40 carriages, almost a kilometre long, 54 hours and 2900 kilometres of travel and that’s what the Ghan is all about.

It was one of those things that I’d always wanted to do, something I can wipe off the bucket list. The service is first class, the meals were delicious and I got to see a part of Australia that is completely different to what we know in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and every other capital city.

We stopped in Alice Springs on the first night and checked out the Finke Desert race (Google it), it’s an amazing test for the driver, cars and motor bikes, it’s like the Baja Desert Race.

We watched the winning drivers and riders cross the line, had a chat to them and then did a tour of the stunning mountain ranges around Alice Springs. The next day we stopped at Katherine, which is famous all over the world for the stunning Katherine Gorge. If you are thinking of travelling to Australia you must visit these places, they are beautiful.

Once we arrived in Darwin it was off the Ghan and onto the race track. Darwin itself is hot at this time of year, so everyone loves coming here to escape the wintery conditions of home.

I arrived with a lot of confidence because my team mate Shane (van Gisbergen) had a really good win in Darwin last year and Alex (Davison) – the team’s former driver - had a pole there a couple of years ago so I knew the cars would be strong there.

The biggest challenge is getting the most out of the tyre so that it holds onto them over a whole race stint, then setting the car up properly so that you get the most out of them. Darwin is always hot and the heat is hard on tyres because the track surface is ultra hot, it burns them up quickly so you have to make the most of them why you have them but you also need to conserve them so that you can run the whole race distance.

We’ve gone well so far this year, had plenty of top tens and the top fives are becoming more frequent, so I came here thinking of top fives and maybe the podium.
The Saturday race was really tough, disappointing really because I thought at the start we had really good speed. Then our front tyres went so I tried to use the rear of the car to turn the car mid-corner which ended up using the front and the rear tyres pretty hard.

The IRWIN Ford wouldn't hang in there so we needed to tune it up a fair bit ahead of the Sunday race.

I finished 10th but Jonathan Webb drilling me at the end on the last lap didn’t help either, I was lucky not to end up in the fence.

Sunday was also frustrating, we qualified 19th, which is one of the few times this year that I haven’t been in the top 10, but couldn’t get it together, then ran out of time.

The race itself, like Saturday’s was tough. We came 12th but we struggled a little bit with race pace; even though we didn’t qualify all that well it wouldn’t have really mattered because our long distance tyre life wasn’t great. We've got to improve on that, do some homework and come back stronger and faster next round.

We’ll put the weekend behind us, not that it was all bad, we still got some good points that easily keeps me sixth in the championship, but I like the next event in Townsville, so I’ll be hoping for a good run.

Till next time,

Lee Holdsworth

Lee Holdsworth is one of the emerging stars of Australian V8 Supercars racing. After six seasons driving for General Motors, he has moved camps and will drive the IRWIN Tools Ford in 2012. Known as one of the most talented drivers down pit lane, most believe he is a V8 Supercars champion in the making. Learn more about Lee and the IRWIN team at www.irwinracing.com.au.
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