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This is the archive page of the Jesus. All about life V8 Ute reports from Andrew Fisher. The reports are listed with the latest first.
Phillip Island - November 30th - December 2nd Race 2 and 3 Report Well what a day! The boys turned up early and got the car prepared for the reverse grid Race 2. Unfortunately as we drove to the grid we realised that the wheel nuts on the front. Left hand wheel had inadvertently not been tightened up properly. Daniel our race engineer had to make the long dash back to the pits to collect a jack and wheel brace. In the mean time all the other cars were let out to the grid and we had to wait for the guys to jack up the car and tighten the wheel, for a moment it looked like we were not going to be released at all, after some time they let us go and Andrew literally had to race around to the grid before the formation was complete. With his heart racing and his stomach churning Andrew said a quick prayer on the grid and tried to settle himself down. Off the line we got a good start and were able to hold position through turn one. Over the next 10 laps we were able to pick up 8 positions so as to finish the race in 3rd place just a couple of hundredths of a second behind 2nd. Andrew felt that it was his best drive of the season and was very pleased with the result. The best news was that the 3rd place resulted in us securing the Rookie of the Year award. The combination of Race 1 and 2 meant that we started from 4th position on the grid. Andrew got a great start and was on the pace during lap one however as they entered turn 1 on the second lap both Andrew and Kim Jane experience significant understeer and ran off the track, unfortunately Andrew had to go wider in order to miss Jane and lost 7 or 8 places. Back on the track Andrew put his head down and battled on to finish in 9th place. Although disappointed with the last race not to mention missing the podium by 2 points Andrew was able to follow up his Rookie result with a fourth place in the championship which for the Jesus Racing Team’s first year was beyond any expectation that we had. Thanks to all the supporters of the Team, a special thanks to Christian Super, the Bible Society, the radio stations 89.9, 107.3 and 103.2 and the individual supporters. We have reached over 15 million people on television and 1.5 million live spectators with the name of Jesus! What a great result. We look forward to sending out details of the 300/600 campaign that we are launching to help fund the 2008 season for the Jesus Racing Team. Well what a day…. Yesterday we were a little off the pace in first practice coming in in 14th position. Unfortunately we seemed to have a massive amount of understeer which fundamentally made the car un-drivable. We started the day with many changes that we hoped would make the car better however after practice 2 we found ourselves way down in 24th place. The car was a little better however it still had massive understeer, the problem is that everyone else had also improved their cars as well. So back to the drawing boards we went. Luke and Daniel worked hard to come up with a solution that would work for us. They rechecked the wheel alignment and found that it was out of alignment for some reason so we rectified this and then made a couple of other changes. So off we went to qualifying, hoping the changes would work for us. The good news is that the car felt stronger straight away, during qualifying I was able to get a better feel for the track now driving a race car that would actually steer. We were able to improve 13 places from the final practice and ended up in 11th place. Race 1 We got off to a reasonable start, the car felt reasonably good and we were able to run with the guys around us pretty well. It was an action packed first couple of laps and we were able to get the Jesus. All about life / Christian Super Ute up into 9th spot. We spent the next few laps dicing with George Miedecke 2nd in the race for Rookie of the year until the last lap when George and Yanis Derums had a slight touch at turn 2 opening up an opportunity for the Jesus. All about life / Christian Super V8 Ute to slide through. A drag race to the hair pin ensued with George and Andrew running door to door, Andrew had a slightly better run on the inside and was able to hold onto the spot despite some mid corner contact when George accidentally tagged the Jesus Ute. Now in 6th position we were able to hold onto this position through to the chequered flag thus ending a fantastic turn around for the day. Thanks for all those people who prayed for us today. Please keep up the prayers for us as we go into the final two races. It would be great to finish off strongly and keep our lead in the Rookie of the Year competition. Symmons Plains - November 17th - 19th  Well
Day 1 and 2 have been run and won in the penultimate round of the V8
Ute series. The Jesus.All about life /Christian Super Ute has enjoyed
two days of good progress. In practice 1 the Jesus.All about life
/Christian Super V8 Ute was 5th fastest and then backed this up with an
8th fastest in 2nd practice.Qualifying on Saturday morning was at 10am and the team was hoping to improve a little on the second practice 8th position. Andrew in particular was praying for a top 5 position in qualifying. In this session the Jesus.All about life /Christian Super V8 Ute team enjoyed their best qualifying position of the year and finished in 5th position. The team was thrilled and felt that the car still had more potential. Race 1 In race one Andrew unfortunately got a slightly slower start than the car lined up next to him on the grid and lost a position, from there he put his head down and was running well, noticeably faster than those around him. Unfortunately on lap 5 Andrew missed a gear and lost two positions. Andrew explained, "I went for 3rd gear at the end of the back straight and unfortunately I went into 5th! It was a tough mistake given our good race pace, we were quicker than those in front of us and to lose 2 positions is very disappointing." Not to be completely deterred Andrew was able to pick up two positions prior to the completion of the race to come home a strong 6ths place. Luke Sieders Team manager of the Jesus.All about life /Christian Super V8 Ute said "we were very pleased with our race pace, Andrew was more consistently faster than anyone else in front of him other than the Winner Layton Cranbrook." The 6th place is the Jesus.All about life /Christian Super V8 Ute's best finish in the first race and will now see them starting from 11th on the grid in the reverse grid race tomorrow. The website now has a new name - its www.jesusracing.com.au - don't forget to tell all your friends about it! Indy Car Race - October 18/20th Jesus. All about life V8 Ute racer Andrew Fisher set the 2nd fastest time in the final race at Indy Car yesterday. Well I am pleased to let you know that the Jesus Ute had its second race win of the series today. Race 2 Race 2 being the reverse grid race saw us starting off the front row after yesterdays disappointment, we were able to get a really good start and led Derums through turns 1 and 2. Derums decided to have a lunge under brakes at turn 3, this move saw Derums and the Jesus all about life/ Christian Super Utes side by side exiting the corner - unfortunately for Derums he missed a gear which allowed us to take the lead. From here we built up a 150 metre lead only to then see the safety car being deployed and thus the gap that had been created reduced to zero. At the restart we simply put our head down and got a good break again. We managed to open up another hanyd lead however this was lost when I missed a gear twice in the one lap. Although close at the end we were able to hold off the other guys and were able to bring the car home in FIRST place. Race 3 We started the last race in 6th spot. Unfortunately we had a massive amount of over steer throughout the race which saw us slip back through the field. The highlight of the race was a fantastic power slide I had as I entered the main straight for lap 11 of the race, not great in terms of losing 2 places however a REAL crowd pleaser! Shortly after this Ray Sidebottom lost it through turn 2 and we had to take evasive action so as to miss him, slight contact was made however we really had nowhere to go and unfortunately lost a spot to Layton Cranbrook down at turn 3. At the end of the race we finished in 10th spot. Over all it was a 7th place for the Jesus all about life Ute which was not too bad a recovery given what happened on the Saturday. This also means that we now move into 5th place for the championship. As a side note there were lots of fans of the Jesus all about life / Christian Super V8 Ute up in Queensland, our pit bay was one of the busiest up there, lots of Chirstian brothers and sisters enjoying what we are doing and lots of not yet Christians who are REALLY interested in what it is all about! Day 2 The day started off early this morning with qualifying. The car felt good however I was not really able to take advantage of this as I really did not string a good lap together, my best time came on the last lap of qualifying which just shows we had a lot more pace available as by this time the car had well and truly gone off. Overall we qualified 14th however had the speed to be up in 8th! Race one got underway and as we settled into the race we seemed to have more pace than those around us, we moved up a couple of places and were set to take a couple more until two guys came together in front of us, I was able to avoid the collision through some great driving (if I may say so) however as I went around the outside the incident the guy behind me ran straight into the other competitor and pushed him into the side of my car. I sustained heavy damage from this, I was able to keep going but lost several spots. Once clear of the incident I put my head down and was able to bring it home in 15th place albeit somewhat limping with the damage sustained. Fortunately the Tafe panel beating boys came and offered their services and have worked hard on repairing the car, about 5 hours later and they have put it back together and other than a dodgy door lock which we are hoping to replace we are ready to go from the front row of the grid tomorrow morning. Who knows with a bit of luck and help from above we may yet be able to salvage a good result for the weekend. Day One Report Well Day 1 has come and gone. It was a solid day in which we made good progress. In practice 1 we were 16th fastest, the car felt strong however the tyres did not come on until late in the session and we were bedding in new brake pads and rotors which meant I really missed half the session anyway so I felt hopeful that we could pick up some time. In practice 2 we were 11th fastest missing 10th by 0.001 of a second! The car felt good although the tyres still took too long to come on, when I arrived back at the pits we found that we had a slow leak in the front right hand tyre which no doubt affected our progress a little. I am quite happy with that position for practice 2 as we have not used any good tyres yet so we should be able to pick up some time when we put on the new tyres for qualifying. Qualifying is on at 8.50 am tomorrow with the first race starting at 12.45pm. Please pray for safety and reliability and that the nut behind the wheel doesn't make a stupid mistake like in Darwin! God Bless Queensland Raceway Well we have arrived in QLD for the 5th Round of the V8 Ute series. I completed an interview this morning on the Vision Radio Network. These guys are joining us as a Round Sponsor for the weekend which is great. The car has arrived at the circuit which is good, always a big sigh of relief when you see your car there. The guy that is running the car has lost a couple of drivers and staff since the Darwin round and to be honest this concerns me a lot as they were the more experienced guys in his team. Unfortunately there are some other issues that seem to be distracting him from the job at hand, these seem to be mainly financially driven. Your prayers for this would be appreciated as it just creates distractions that we don't need, not to mention an increase in tension in the air, it seems that we are the only ones that pay their bills on time! Fortunately the guy that ran me in my Lotus is running a couple of V8 Fujitsu Super Cars up here this weekend so he is on hand for me to call on if I have too many issues. Anyway we start on Friday with two practice sessions so it will be a good opportunity to shake the car down and assess the set up that we have decided on. This track creates VERY close racing that quite often results in people making mistakes particularly under brakes and creating chaos! Please pray that we are able to keep our noses clean and do not get involved in other people's issues. Thanks for your support and encouragement, if you know anyone who would be able to take up the Advertising provided by Vision Radio Network as part of the deal for this weekend PLEASE let me know as we have no direct funding for this weekend outside of that. Day Three - Sunday As some of you have come to understand over the past 4 months supporting the Jesus all about life / Christian Super Ute there are lots of ups and downs in motor racing, so many things can and do go wrong and Sunday Race 2 was no exception. Race 2 report Following on from our 10th place finish in the 1st race with an improving (handling) car we started race 2 out of 7th place. On the warm up lap the car felt great, the guys had installed a drink bottle so that I could keep up my fluids in the hot conditions. All was looking great for a strong finish possibly even another race win! I lined up, took a sip out of the new drink bottle, the Red lights came on and I took off like a scolded cat, I thought to myself, man my competitors have slow reaction time response they have not even moved, it was then that I looked up again at the lights to realise that the red light was still on and that this was the reason everyone was still stationary! Book one, page one, don't move until the red light is extinguished, one would think having been racing for 6 years and completing over 50 races that I would not make such a stupid error but I did and this resulted in an immediate drive through penalty and basically meant that I rejoined in last place some 1/4 of a lap behind second last place. I spent the next 11 laps trying to catch the people in front, my lap times were 1-2 seconds faster than them however all this meant was that I was only able to make up 3 positions by the end of the race. This was a truly gut wrenching experience, quiet humiliating to be honest as I felt I let down the team, my supporters and myself. The only good to come from this was that my lap times were up there with the lead guys which gave some source of comfort and that had I not made such a stupid mistake we could have been right in amongst it. Race 3 report Race 3 saw the Jesus all about Life / Christian Super V8 Ute start from position 16 on the grid. This time I waited until the red light went out which is always a good thing! I got a great start again which is good, I went around the outside at turn one and picked up a couple of spots, it could have been even more however the driver in front of me was baulked by another driver and backed off to let him through. On the first lap there was a HUGE accident which saw two of the cars sustain massive damage. We followed the pace car for three or so laps and then we got back into it. We managed to make up a couple more spots which was great and then we had a battle for the 11th spot for the next 5 or so laps, we had good pace and on the last lap dived deep under brakes at turn 1, from there we went wheel to wheel with the other competitor for the next 3 turns some of which are flat out in 3rd and 4th gear. We had a slight touch a couple of times but managed to hold it together until the hairpin corner which saw us both out brake ourselves and run wide, unfortunately this allowed two guys to get through, I picked up the place from the other guy so our net loss was one spot and a bit of disappointment in not coming 11th, still 12th from 16th was not a bad result given the hard work in getting past someone at this circuit. Overall it was a disappointing weekend however given that we are still in 7th place in the championship and that we were able to continue to build the profile of the Jesus All about life / Christian Super V8 Ute and did not sustain any real damage I guess we should not be too disappointed. Thanks as always for your emails of support and your prayers they are always appreciated. Please keep the two competitors that were in the accident in your prayers, they were both a little hurt and shaken up from the accident. God Bless Day Two - Saturday Well it was hot up in Darwin today. We started the day with the 3rd practice session and all went quiet well, the car felt good and we were within a second of the lead person, I think we achieved the 8th fastest lap in this session. After the session we decided to try and find a little more front end grip and made a couple of changes heading into qualifying. Qualifying got under way and the car unfortunately did not feel any better in fact the under steer I had been experiencing worsened which was very disappointing. We spent the first three laps trapped behind another competitor that was much slower through the first sector where our car is really strong and this all but blew our chances of a reasonable qualifying session. We could only manage 15th fastest which our second worst performance this year. This was always going to make the race difficult and given that the car was not handling well we decided to go back to the settings from the previous session. We found out that the tyres were graining which means that there are little balls of rubber that peel off the tyre, this is due to the abrasiveness of the circuit. What this results in is the car sitting on top of the road surface rather than sinking into it which is what happens normally. The problem with this as we have now found out is that it means your have to basically reverse your thought process, where as you might lower your tyre pressures normally you need to increase them and where as you might normally have toe our on the car you will actually require toe in. This was really a learning experience for us so we thought we would make some changes to go in the first Race. Race 1 Race one saw the Jesus Ute get off the line in the best fashion so far this season, We were able to beat both the person beside us and the person in front albeit down at the first corner where things got a little ugly so we actually lost a spot from one of the other guys going around the outside of the mess. We settled down into the race and started chasing the pack in front of us, the racing was both hot and hard, we managed to pick up two spots as two cars came together, we narrowly avoided one of these cars as it speared across the track, we were now up to position 13. The next few laps we followed one of the guys, we were clearly faster than him however it is a tough track to get past and therefore we just had to keep putting him under pressure. The opportunity came with 4 laps to go a slight opening into the right hander that leads up to the "fish hook". the Jesus Ute went deep under brakes and managed to pull off the move, the other competitor left plenty of room which was very decent of him. We then took off after position 11, over the following couple of laps we managed to pull back a gap of about 150 mtrs, on the second last lap we had an opportunity to pull right up behind this car under brakes however going in so deep at turn one caught us out and we almost had an off track excursion, fortunately we were able to keep it in the black stuff however we had lost 100 mtrs and any chance of getting 11th place. We keep the car going however and was able to peg most of the gap back to finish just 0.2 behind 11th place. The good news for us was that post race two cars were disqualified for having illegal sway bars and thus we ended up being classified as the 10th place finisher which is great. We will now start from position 7 in the reverse grid race tomorrow. We have made a couple of adjustments that we hope will help us gain some more speed for race two, so as long as we get a clean start and some blessing from God we should have a great result tomorrow Some more information As you know I was in some trouble after the Eastern Creek round for the accident that I had with Kim Jane and the subsequent re-entry on to the track. Both these matters were heard at a hearing today and the good news is that the charges for the incident with Jane were squashed by the officials who deemed it to be a racing incident, the other drive advised me later he felt that this was the correct decision however I pleaded guilty in regards to the re-entry matter, the officials said that it was like a breath of fresh air to have someone confess that they did something "stupid". I did point out that at the time my mind was not actually processing information as clearly as it usually does as I had just done a 360 degree spin at 120 km/ph brushed the concrete wall after thinking I was about the wreck my car and ended up facing the right way! My first reaction was just to get out of there ... Anyway, they said seeing I had been so upfront and honest about it, what did I feel the penalty should be, they reminded me before I spoke that it was somewhere between nothing and excluding me from the race and or fining me up to $50,000! Interestingly they excluded and charged Will Davision $5000 for hitting a competitor today in the Supercars! I suggested that a fine of $500 seemed appropriate given the circumstances, they felt this was not reflective of the seriousness of the category but then acknowledged my driving record and the fact that I am not inclined to do stupid things, they deliberated for about 90 seconds and imposed a $1000 fine! So there you have it, another interesting (if not slightly expensive day in the Jesus All about life / Christian Super V8 Ute. Day 1 - Friday Well the 4th round of the V8 Ute series got under way today in not so sunny Darwin. The Jesus. All about life/Christian Super V8 Ute had a steady day finishing 9th and 12 respectively in the practice sessions. The team is confident aboutimproving on this in the next practice session as well as in qualifying. We have changed the set up and it seems to have improved the car a little plus we have been running on the worst of our tyres. We had some special guest join us for Sponsor ride hot laps, one of these was the head chaplain for the V8 Supercars Mr Gary Coleman. I figured that Gary was as good as representative for the Jesus sponsorship as anyone. It was great to be able to share this experience with Gary as he has been a great encouragement to me over the past few months since launching this program. A special welcome to the guys I meet with on Wednesday night up here in Darwin, many of these guys have joined our email list as supporters, we had a great night on Wednesday night and I look forward to seeing you guys out at the track. Tomorrow we have one practice, qualifying and then Race 1. Don't forget to tune into Channel 7 on Sunday afternoon to see the "as live" telecast of the 3rd V8 Ute race within the V8 Supercars program. Thanks to those of you that have supported the Jesus All about life / Christian Super Ute through your tax deductible donations, please keep them coming as it helps us to continue this ministry. One very exciting contact that we received this week was from the organising Diocese of the World Youth Day, they have placed a request to have myself involved in this event which is just fantastic. World Youth day holds the record for the most attended event ever 5 million people! They are coming to Australia next year which is the main reason the Pope is visiting our great land and we have been contacted in order to be a part of the lead up program to this event. It is amazing what God is doing with this Jesus all about life / Christian Super V8 Ute program. Take care and don't forget to wear your Jesus Tee Shirts proudly this weekend as we race up here in Darwin. God Bless Eastern Creek Race 3 - Monday, June 11th Well I must say life is certainly not boring when racing the Jesus All about life/ Christian Super Ute! Today was certainly an eventful day, we started off from position 3 in the final race, however before we even got going we had drama's where the car would not start, this was only 40 minutes before the scheduled call up and thus threw us into some what of a panic. OK to the race, we got a reasonable start only to lose a spot at turn 2 when one of the guys slid into the side of our car. Then exiting turn 3, I was tagged from behind by another competitor and then took a spectacular ride at about 140km per hour towards the concrete wall. As we all know life at these times has a tendency to slow down, I knew I was not in any life threatening danger as I was sliding sideways towards the wall however if I hit the wall directly it was going to destroy the car, as you can imaging I prayed that this would not happen. Once I hit the grass I was able to hold the car steady and other than destroying two signs and scraping the car down the wall a little I came out pretty unscathed. I was able to select a gear and rejoin the race. Unfortunately the front right hand tyre was scraping against the front guard and this made me run wide at turn 8 thus losing more positions. After this I just had to put my head down and try my hardest to get as many positions back as possible, I managed to get back to position 17 by the end of the race which wasn't bad given I had dropped back to about 25th. After the race there was as much drama as before it or during it. We were ordered to the Dyno to have our cars horsepower tested, this is always a worrying time as it is so black and white. I have been living the past 3 rounds with comments about how both my cars have been up on horse power so I was also quietly relieved that we were about to find out once and for all. The good news is that the horse power was within the required guidelines which is great and means that people can now stop casting aspersions about our car's power, of interest they also tested our previous car and this came in fine as well. So once this was finished I was then called to our drivers standards officer for the incident at turn 3, unfortunately the driving standards officer believes that I did not leave enough room for the driver behind me, to be honest if I was him the accident would not have happened as I would have rolled off the power to avoid the collision but he felt that this was not his responsibility so he believes I am in the wrong. I was also in trouble for my re-entry onto the circuit after the incident. These issues will go before the Stewards when we are in Darwin. So just when I think all the bad news is done with and nothing else could go wrong I was called to a stewards enquiry for a technical infringement on the car. The people who owned the car prior to us had apparently installed a "quick fire" battery charging system, this allows you to jump start the car more quickly than by gaining access to the battery (wish we had known about this prior to the race when we were frantically trying to get the car going!) any way it is illegal even though it is not a performance enhancing device. The stewards were very understanding of my plight and were accepting of the fact that I knew nothing about this device however their hands were tied and they had to charge me for it. We were therefore disqualified from the final race results! Obviously this is very disappointing however I am told they could have been a lot harder if they remotely thought that I knew about this. Given that we came 17th anyway and the fact that my prayers were answered as I careered towards the wall it is not the end of the world. Thanks for your prayers and support, look out for the coverage next Saturday at 1.30pm on Channel 7. Race 2 - Sunday, June 10th Well what a difference 24 hours can make. I am sure you all picked up that I was somewhat disappointed by the result yesterday and to be honest I felt that I had let the team down with the result given all the supporters who took the time to attend the function put on by the Bible Society. Today saw the first win for the Jesus All about life/Christian Super Ute. We started of 3rd on the grid given our disappointing finish yesterday and were able to sneak the lead in a very close tussle to the end. The car was certainly better than yesterday, although still not perfect as it was still under steering too much. We were however able to set a lap time that was at least in the ball park which is encouraging. All I can say is that God chose to bless himself today and that perhaps if it happened yesterday it would have been more about me and the moment so as usual he knows what he is doing, it was great having Annie, the kids and my brothers family there to enjoy the moment. Tomorrow is another day and it looks like we start from the 3rd position on the grid again. Please continue to pray for safety and that God will continue to bless this ministry. A prayer for dry conditions would also not hurt the cause given how bad the car was in the wet on Saturday! Below is the press release from the V8 Ute site! Enjoy...I did. Andrew "Fishtail" Fisher Race 1 and Qualifying - Saturday, June 10th Well what a day. It started with torrential rain that saw our first session cancelled altogether. A meeting of the stewards was held and it was decided that all categories except for the V8 Utes and the Supercars would be sent home for the day! This was lucky for us as we had 100 odd (no I don't mean strange) people attending a corporate function hosted by the Bible Society and Christian Super. This meant we went straight into qualifying, the conditions were terrible, basically we were able to get in two laps before the front screen was so fogged up I could not see out the front of the car! Qualifying was called off early as the conditions were just too bad. We qualified 10th which I was pretty happy with given that we only really had 2 laps to set a time. After qualifying I was able to attend the function for a little while and answer some questions about the program and what we are trying to achieve. Unfortunately this was short lived as we were called onto the track early for race 1. The Jesus Ute lined up in 10th spot. We got a reasonable start however were blocked in going into turn 2 and lost a few places. Unfortunately the set up we had just did not work and we had massive under steer which means the car would simply not turn into the corners. This greatly effected our ability to actually race with the guys and it became more of a case of just holding on until the end of the race and trying not to lose to many position, very frustrating however not much you can do once you are out there. We managed to hold onto 14th place which to be honest was more good luck than good racing and this means that we are on the second row of the grid for race 2 as the top 16 positions are reversed. The guys are reviewing set up issues overnight and hopefully we can get to the bottom of what ever is wrong with our current set up. A big thank you to all the people who braved the bad whether to join us for the event, it seemed that everyone had a great time none the less. Special thanks to Martin Johnson and Paul Beckmann for organising their respective organisations. It was great having such a large group of people join the Jesus All about Life / Christian Super V8 Ute for this round. It was a great day over which I had several very positive comments from people at the function and other drivers regarding FM 103.2 joining us for this round as the bonnet sponsor, just remember (Phil and the team at FM103.2) it is the Jesus Ute that you sponsor when other people contact you! The fit between the contempory message of the Jesus. All about life program and the contempory nature of the FM 103.2 station seems to be a match made in heaven....and we should know! Thanks for your prayers, they are so greatly appreciated as is your support. I look forward to updating you after tomorrows race. Wakefield Park Day 1 Round 2 My aim for this weekend is to qualify in the top 10 and then finish off the weekend inside the top 10. Wakefield park is a very tight circuit that generally creates a significant amount of carnage. It also usually results in the top 10-15 being within 1 second of each other in qualifying. The Jesus Ute has received a fair amount of coverage already this weekend as it was covered in the Canberra Chronicle and is being covered in the Canberra times as well. I have also been told that Channel 7 should be interviewing me this weekend as well. This is all fantastic coverage and profile being created for the Jesus All about life and Christian Super Ute. So the day got off to an early, very, very cold start. We were the first out on track at 9.30am. It was great to have a couple of supporters down from Gymea Baptist for the day. The first session was a good hit out and allowed us to shake the car down and see how it felt at the Wakefield track. I was able to finish this session in 12th place however the car was under steering a fair bit especially across the top of the circuit. I slightly flat spotted a tyre which was a bit frustrating. My fastest lap however was my last one which was encouraging. In the second session we went out at about 11.30am. The car felt much the same which makes sense because we did not change it! I felt more comfortable though coming to grips with the Ute around this circuit. Although the under steer was was still their I managed to reduce my time by 3 tenths of a second and ended up 8th in the session. I came in however a little despondent and decided I needed to convince the team manager to change the set up of the car to reduce the under steer. After about 5 minutes of debate he finally conceded an told my crew chief to change the set up. This was quiet a compliment as the team manager hardly ever changes the set up for anyone other than a professional driver. So they went to work on the car. As the checked the settings they found that the car was actually out of alignment, I am not sure why this was the case however I was told this was definitely causing the problem, although a little cranky with the alignment being out the team manager was vindicated in his set up which I am sure deep down made him happy! So we went out for the 3rd and final session of the day. The car felt good on the warm up lap so I was encouraged. We got down to business and the car performed well. I was able to make up ground on the cars around me which was good. I managed to drop my time by a further 2 tenths of a second and was delighted to find that at the end of the session I was in 2nd place. At the later stages of the session I came up with some ideas that I think will assist in improving my times further which hopefully bodes well for tomorrow. Before we all get too excited I should point out that the top 10 drivers are within 0.5 of a second and the top 18 are within 1 second! So we will need to be on our game tomorrow and hope that the set up works and that I can improve in a couple of areas. Tomorrow we have a practice session and the qualifying. Day 2 Round 2 Those of you that have watched motor sport have no doubt heard about the tough days you can sometimes have. Today started off well as I was 4th quickest during the morning practice session, everything seems to be going well, and the car felt strong. I probably could have warmed the brakes up a little better on the first out lap and due to this I think I lost a little time on my quickest lap. I gave the call to the boys in the pits that I felt we had done enough and they agreed and asked me to complete a full cool down lap. Unfortunately on the cool down lap the car came to a sudden halt as if it had run out of petrol. I sat stranded for a little while telling the team what had happened, we had plenty of fuel it just seemed to be not getting through. I managed to get the car started by pumping the accelerator and was able to limp back to the pits. The car sounded pretty rough however it made it there. Once at the pits the mechanics had a bit of a look and felt that the car had somehow gone into limp mode, a simple case of just reflashing the computer. "OK", I said "so we will be right for qualifying" which was a couple of hours away. As I watched them plug the computer into the car and saw them working on it with furrowed brows I began getting an uneasy feeling. I decided to go for a walk as watching them try to work out what was wrong was difficult as you are trying to read their body language hoping for the slightest hint of a positive look. Unfortunately this look was not coming my way. After working hard to try and solve the issue via the computer they finally pulled off the timing chain and rocket cover and found that the timing chain had skipped a cog and had damaged the cam shaft and who knows what else. They think this stems from a missed gear I had in Melbourne which I had told them about and asked that they check out. They checked it and it seemed ok however they think the bolt must have been fractured and then just let go. This resulted in an even more agonising decision, if I want to keep racing at this weekend's event then I would have to purchase a motor and get it shipped down and put in overnight. The boys were able and willing it was just down to whether we were prepared to spend the 12K (easier to say than TWELVE THOUSAND DOLLARS) to purchase the motor. As you can imagine my first reaction was to pack up the Jesus Ute and go home, I am still not sure whether that was the right decision however Annie and myself feel that we did not want to let down the people that had supported this venture. I ran into Gary Coleman who is the Chaplain at the V8 races. As he has been doing motorsport for so many years it was good to speak with him during this low moment and he prayed with me as I made the decision what to do. I went back and spoke to the team manager and asked him what he felt it would cost to rebuild the damaged motor and he said so long as there is no damage to the block etc that it shouldn't be more than 2-3K. He said that once it is rebuilt the I can obviously have it as a spare and sell it to the next poor individual that suffers my fate as these engines are not readily available on race weekends so the net cost would be around 5K. Given that the whole program is costing 150K then it is not a huge amount as a percentage to over run, the problem is how tight things were already. I thought about it and prayed about it some more and decided that it was worth while keeping going. We will miss qualifying and therefore have to start at the rear of the grid however we have an incar camera this weekend so perhaps it will result in more coverage for the Jesus Ute as it comes through the field. The reaction from people has been amazing, three distinct groups, those that are genuinely sorry for me, those that are almost openly happy that the Jesus Ute broke (proves there is no God) and those that are stunned that God would let his Ute break down! This experience although one that I am not happy about, has led to several conversations with people about God, especially in regards to "prosperity theology". I have been able to speak to them about the fact that my relationship with God does not guarantee me success and that although I am on his team it does not mean that he is going to help me in some miraculous way to win! I have tried to remain as positive and happy as I can (this was difficult believe me) however I think that in being an example to those around me the last thing they need to see is a Christian acting like a spoilt brat. Anyway, I am going to log off now, hopefully the guys will get the new motor in overnight and tomorrow will be a better day for the Jesus Ute. If I can get up to 16th from my starting position which I think is 29th then I would start on Pole for the reverse grid race which would be great profile for the Jesus All about Life and Christian Super organisations! Take care and thanks for your support. Day 3 Round 2 Wakefield Park We following on from yesterdays disappointment the day got off to a reasonable start with a phone call to tell me that the motor was in the car and all looked good. It was great to have the family make the trek down to Goulburn with me for the races today, also great to have some of my family their and Steve Ford from Church. Race 1 Due to the problems yesterday I had to start from the rear of the grid which meant that I was in 29th position. I got a reasonable start to the race however found that even though somewhat faster than the guys in front of me it was difficult going to make up places due to the tightness of the circuit. I managed to make up about 5 spots over the first 4 laps. The as we were going around one of the corners a driver speared across the track and I had to take run off the track just to avoid him, the guy behind me was not so lucky and sustained damage that bought out the safety car. The safety car was out for 2 laps, this obviously affected my ability to take some more places as you are not allowed to overtake when under a safety car. Once the safety car was recalled I got back into it and managed to pick up a further 6 places, so I came a credible 10th place having picked up 10 spots, this meant however that I had missed the 16th position cut off for the reverse grid. Race 2 In the second race I actually started from 18th as one of the guys received a penalty. The race was unbelievably action packed. Due to the reverse grid format it meant that I had to start behind the guys who won the first race. I drove pretty well and didn't make any mistakes and managed to come in in tenth place. I was very please with this result as my best lap time was also amongst the best few. There was plenty of carnage in this race and I was fortunate to miss some of the accidents. Race 3 I started the last race in 15th spot. I got a great start in race 3 and had taken 3 spots by the second turn unfortunately I missed a gear exiting the 2nd corner and lost 5 spots! Up the road a few corners there was a major accident I cautiously went around this as there was dust everywhere, I was amazed that others just went bundling through with no caution what so ever, unfortunately for one of them they ran straight into the stranded car! So I was now back to about 18th! after this the safety car came out and this remained out for about 3 laps. After the safety car came in I put my head down and raced hard for the next 7 or so laps and managed to get up to 14th place although I was ruing the unforced error back on lap one I must admit that having started in 29th place at the beginning of the day the result was reasonable. This will be the weekend that got away from us, we had the pace to run at the front all weekend however due to the engine issue it was just not meant to be! We now have a rest until the Eastern Creek round which is on the Queens birthday weekend. I believe we are actually racing on the Monday as well which will be interesting and may mean that more church goers can get there to support the Jesus All about life/Christian Super Ute. Take care and thanks for the prayers. Please remember to order your tee-shirts as they are turning up this week. I will send you some shots once they have arrived. Melbourne Grand Prix - Day One report - Thursday, March 15th Well the Grand Prix Weekend is here. I completed a test today down at Calder Park which went very well. I was 2 tenth of a second off the lap record which is encouraging. Our aim for this weekend is to Qualify in the top 10, this would be a great step forward especially given that I have never driven around the circuit before. We only have 1 practice session prior to the qualifying session so this will also make it harder. Below is a link to a news report on the JAAL V8 Ute program, the message is getting out there! Subject: US Coverage. Click Here This week I received a very special donation from a young race fan, his contribution reminded me of the lady who came in to Church and gave the little she had for God's work. This has been the greatest encouragement I have had regarding the JAAL V8 Ute program this week. My young supporter will have his name proudly displayed on the Jesus Ute this weekend at the Formula 1 GP. I would like to thank you all for voting for the Jesus Ute on the www.v8utes.com.au website, the fact that we are leading this has NOT gone unnoticed I have already had several of the competitors and Teams mention it, they have put it down to "divine" intervention! I have also had several people tell me that their "Christian" friends have "spoken up" to them, and have said they are going for the Jesus Ute, one of the guys wife who is a Christian (he is not) has told her husband that she is going for the Jesus Ute!! The sign writing has been updated for this weekend with the Christian Super being moved to the tail gate so that it stands out more and now the Jesus Ute has "his" name plastered on the front! I will take some photo's over the weekend and send them through. Speaking of Christian Super please consider them as your Superannuation provider, it is your choice where your Super is put and by choosing Christian Super you are using your VOICE. This could be a remarkable opportunity to witness to your employer, workmates or staff. Check them out, their results and costs are very competitive. The Tee-Shirt design is coming along well, it would be great if some of you could please place your orders for them so that we have some money in the Kitty to pay for them (thanks to Martin and the Bible Society who have covered the cost of the design). Click here to order on-line Let me encourage and challenge you to use the Jesus Ute as an evangelistic tool, I do not know too many guys who are not interested in talking about motor racing, strike up a conversation about the Grand Prix this weekend and then use the Jesus.All about life Ute and the fact that you are a supporter as a segue to a statement about your faith. Remember that the Jesus.All about life V8 Ute racing from the Clipsal round is on this Saturday at 12.30 PM on channel 7, it is a 1 hour program that covers the 3 races. Finally, please keep us in your prayers, particularly pray for those that come into contact with us that they may be challenged to consider just who Jesus is. Day Two report - Friday, March 16th Well what a day, the ups and downs of Motorsport. We got off to a good start being 14th in the first practice. This was encouraging and I was the 2nd quickest rookie. For the qualifying session the team made some adjustments to the tyre pressures and unfortunately these caused the car to have massive understeer and thus I could not set a competitive time, we ended up 18th and I was very disappointed. It was a good opportunity for the team to see how I would deal with such a situation, I must admit I prayed for patience....God answered my prayers and I was very pleased when my crew chief came up to me just before race one and said what a pleasure it was to work with me and how much he appreciated my willingness to get over my frustrations. So we started the first race in 18th, we got off to a great start and I was going very well and had picked up 4 places by lap 3 unfortunately I pushed it too hard into turn one and ran wide and lost three positions, I was obviously not very happy with myself to say the least. This mistake however spurred me on to get a good result for the team and in the final 5 laps I was able to pick up a further 6 spots including a very audacious move around the right hand sweeper which was really cool! So in the end the Jesus All about life V8 Ute ended up in 9th place. Tomorrow we do it all again with with a reverse grid race from which I will be starting from 6th on the grid. BTW we won the best Ute Livery and everyone is talking about it. Day Three Report - Saturday, March 17th Well what a day. Firstly I had my first official autograph session which was attended by a lot of young school kids, Annie joined me today which is great and Bob and Sue Beaumont came to the autograph session as well, which was great. Now to the racing. I started in 8th position due to the reverse grid format. I picked up 2 spots off the line (my starts are getting there) and by lap 3 I was in 3 place and had a comfortable margin over 4th place....Well I wish I could say I held it together until the end of the race however I got distracted by a radio call telling me I had 2 laps to go and then missed my braking spot by a couple of metres and went straight ahead at turn number 1! A stupid stupid mistake that cost me about 9 places. I had two laps to get back on track and was able to get back up to eight only to miss a gear coming onto the main straight having avoided two cars that came together and ended up in 10th place. When I went back to about 12th I was hit by one of the guys who decided he could out brake me and then the guy in front of me hit a tyre bundle and threw it up in the air, unfortunately then it landed it landed on the Jesus Ute! Obviously I was very disappointed with this result as I had 3rd place all wrapped up and was 1.5 seconds a lap quicker than the guy in 2nd who was just 100 metres in front of me. The car is a bit damaged however will be OK for tomorrow. The good news is that my lap time improved again and now positions me well for the final race. I should be in position 8 for the start of the last race and feel that I have the speed to make a few spots up so long as I don't make a stupid mistake AGAIN...... It was a crazy race all round with some major damage on a couple of the cars and it is not even a championship round!! We are being interviewed at 8.10am tomorrow morning on Lite FM! Which is great exposure for the Jesus.All about life program. Day Four Report - Sunday, March 18th Well another race meet is over for the Jesus Ute. Today was another eventful day, it started early with a radio interview on Lite FM in Melbourne where they interviewed me for about 7 minutes on all aspects of what we are doing. I got the opportunity to explain the Jesus. All about life program as well as plug a couple of supporters being Christian Super and Beaumont Tiles. A couple of people heard the interview and mentioned it at the track which was great. Race 3 was another eventful excursion, I got a great start again which was great and was running in the lead group however I was struggling with understeer again which I later found out was because the team boss had lowered my tyre pressures which I was unaware of! Anyway this probably lead to me overdriving the car a little and subsequently I made a couple of mistakes at turn 1 again which cost me a couple of spots so after 8 very hard laps of racing I ended back where I started in 9th place. This means that we came 8th over all for the weekend which once again was a good result however this time could have been a lot better. There is a lot to take away from the weekend and to learn from for both myself and the team, we hope to get a practice day in prior to the Wakefield round down at Goulburn. Let me know if you are going to come to Wakefield park as there are sponsor rides on the Friday and then racing on Saturday (only 1 race) and Sunday. I have attached the schedule for you. I am not sure if we get a discount on ticket prices however of you let me know when you want to come I will make some enquiries. It would be great to have a bunch of you there with the Jesus. All about life Tee-Shirts on! Take care. Adelaide I had my first drive in the Jesus. All about life Ute today. We had two practice sessions in which I was 17th and then 16th, there are 32 utes entered. The good news is that I managed to reduce my lap time by 2.5 seconds in the second session and most of the guys in front of me were on new tyres and we were not, because I did not want to waste new tyres whilst I am still learning the dynamics of the new car. The car looks and feels great, the commentators are getting their heads around calling out the name of Jesus, they made a joke during the practice session saying that now they know my name is Fisher it all makes sense because I am obviously a "fisher of men". Overall the reaction has been good, I have had a few visitors (Christians) to the pits and this has been a great witness for the guys as well. All in all it was a good day, the car is still straight (undamaged) two guys have already hit the walls! and we are heading in the right direction as far as our pace is concerned. Finally thanks for the prayers, I know there are a lot of people praying for this program. To get regular updates by e-mail, fill in the form below. Day Two report - Friday, March 2nd I managed to qualify the JAAL V8 Ute in 15th position, however I gained a spot due to one of the guys being disqualified so I actually started from 14th. Unfortunately my start in Race 1 was not overly impressive, remember that I have never driven one of these cars off the line and am used to dropping the clutch at 6500 RPM in a Lotus that simply hooks up and goes. The Ute however is a different story, I tried to get off the line at around 2500 RPM, however it just tramp roded up the road and I lost 3 places! So I found myself back in 17th by turn 5. OK as we got on the back straight I sorted myself out and got down to business. I was able to get up to 12th by about lap 3 of the 8 laps and then over the final laps was able to get past a few more guys to end the race in 9th position. I am very happy with this result. So the Jesus. All about life will start race 2 from 6th position on the grid as they reverse the top 15 drivers. People keep saying that Jesus is my sponsor or that I am that Jesus guy! One official actually wrote down Car number 9 (my number) Driver Jesus. Very funny experience. There have been many people who have visited us in the pits, the team is blown away by the interest. Thanks for your support. Day Three report - Saturday, March 3rd Well I have experienced my first V8 Ute reverse grid race! The good news is that came home in 7th place after starting in 8th, once again I missed the start and lost a place. I also flat spotted two tyres again which is not very good, however the result was very pleasing and for those of you that saw the race on TV I am sure you will agree the finish for the Jesus.All about life Ute was pretty exciting! The bad news is that the Jesus.All about life Ute is no longer scratch free as one of the other drivers decided that he would try to go around the outside of me at turn one and we came together at about 120kms/hour. We managed to get through the corner but getting out of the car was not so easy after the race. Well we have the last race of the weekend tomorrow morning so I am off to bed as it is now quiet late. oh yeah I am starting 8th in the final race. Thanks for your prayers, please keep them going. Day Four report - Sunday, March 4th Well this brings an end to the racing at the Clipsal 500 and I am glad to inform you that the Jesus. All about life V8 Ute came 5th in the final race which means that we finished 6th for the weekend! This is way above our expectations given that we have not driven or tested the car prior to the weekend. The real winner though was our Faith. Great things happened this weekend. At least 50 people came and visited me in the pits declaring their faith and support. The team that runs me were blown away about the response to our car from the punters visiting us in the pits. The TV coverage was fantastic on Channel 7 (so I am told as I have not seen it yet!) and the name of Jesus was declared for the first time around the tracks of a racing meet. Very exciting indeed. I am humbled by the level of support and kind words expressed by many people both Christians and non Christians, many people think that it is a great. Thanks for those who PRAYED and especially for those that have contributed financially to the running of the Ute. |
 
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