In my new role as Tyrepower’s national Ambassador, I was delighted to be invited to the 2015 Tyrepower National Conference at the Sheraton Beach Resort on the Gold Coast in mid-April.
Straight after breakfast on the Monday morning, a special video package introduced me … so I drove my #888 Red Bull Commodore right into the conference room!
That got everyone’s attention (!) … anyway, I joined MC Danny McMaster up on stage to talk about my career and experiences, and then had a chance to answer lots of questions from what seemed like a couple of hundred conference delegates in the room.
We then finished up with a session of photos and autographs, all of which I know went way longer than it was supposed to, so I managed to disrupt the carefully planned schedule without even trying!
The Tyrepower Conference was really a lot of fun and everyone there seemed to enjoy it, and for me it was a great chance to see the passion that everyone has for the Tyrepower brand and their businesses.
You could really feel the genuine enthusiasm for what they’re doing and the success that the stores are having, and I am very proud to be a part of it.
Things went pretty well, too, a couple of weeks before the Conference at the latest V8 Supercar round, the Tyrepower Tasmanian SuperSprint at the Symmons Plains track, near Launceston.
Three pole positions and two wins from three races was an awesome result; it might have been three wins but I was a bit too keen at the start of the last race, and got a penalty for hitting David Reynolds at the first corner.
It was a fair cop and it put me at the back of the pack, but I was able to recover to sixth … which is a pretty good indicator of the pace we had in the #888 Red Bull Commodore all weekend.
On the Friday, when the conditions were wet, we had a few off-track excursions and I know people were beginning to wonder what we were doing.
But while I didn’t want to actually go off, what we were doing was trying to maximise the speed of the car at different points of the track … and a few times we overstepped the mark.
That approached worked really well for us come the Saturday, which was dry, when we had the fastest car in the place and ran away to two all-the-way wins.
We carried that speed into Sunday too, with another pole, though the race didn’t quite go to plan as I’ve said.
It was great to share such a successful weekend with the large crew there from Tyrepower, who were enjoying sponsorship of the round and lapping up the action trackside.
So now we head to Perth, another event I really enjoy, and I am optimistic we can keep our success going.
After the two wins in Tasmania I’m now on 99 championship career wins … so, no pressure, but it’d be nice to be the first-ever driver to get to 100!
Stay safe, talk soon.
Craig
