On Wednesday we picked up our new Mini at the Clipsal 500 for my first round of the Mini Challenge Championship. We prepared the car and everything was set for Thursday practice. On Thursday we had two practice sessions we struggled a little bit with learning some of the intricacies of mini racing. All in all it was a great experience, the car is great fun to drive.

On Friday we went out for qualifying, Having solved our problems from the previous day. Things were going well at the start of the qualifying session, I was running second fastest. On the fourth lap coming into turn one, I carried too much speed and lost the rear of the car, over corrected and spun around. The gravel trap caught me, rolled me over 3 times. It was a huge crash. The car is now quite damaged but it is repairable. It was my own driver error, due to a lack of experience in a front wheel drive car.

A positive out of the crash was Sports Rewards received excellent national exposure on all of the major television networks. The Mini Challenge offers excellent television coverage and offers brilliant value for money for potential sponsors.

Now I am very much looking forward to, and preparing for the Australian Grand Prix. It should be a great event, my first Australian Grand Prix.

Chris Wootton's Fundraising Page

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and 2010 will be fantastic.

Over Christmas, during the gap in the BMW season and Toyota Racing Series season, I have been keeping on top of my physical training, doing plenty of cycling and a few gym workouts. I spent a week before Christmas helping out the new drivers with the Eurasia team.

In New Zealand I am running with the XXX Motorsport Team.

When we first arrived we had a seat fitting, it is quite tight in the cockpit. I jogged, walked and drove around the track in a road car, it’s a fun little track, only 2.62km long but it has a good mix of high to low speed corners.

The first day of testing was just sorting everything out, making sure I was comfortable in the car, getting used to the car and track.

The second day we pushed harder, the times were gradually improving, it was all going well until in the third session my car suffered a failure, the rear suspension broke under brakes, and at the fastest part of the track I careered into the barrier. I hit the wall at a tad over 5g. This badly damaged the car and I had to use another one for the next day.

Friday I suffered a few teething problems with the new car, but when a car is rebuilt over night these things happen. It was mostly sorted for the second session and I had a few laps to get back in the groove. Qualifying is tomorrow. I am really looking forward to that and racing.

I had a brilliant day last Monday, flying to Melbourne for a F3 test day at Winton. Up early for the first flight out of Brisbane, allowed me only to catch the opening laps of the F1 coverage. Another great win for Mark Webber!

It was a great deal of fun driving a formula 3 car again. The car was a Dallara 04 car and would be raced in national class in Australian F3. It was a lot of fun, it has a lot more downforce and more power than my Formula BMW car.

We only had around 20 laps but it was good fun going faster every lap and getting to know the car and the track. I felt really comfortable in the car and I think my fitness training certainly paid off.

I look forward to racing an F3 car next year they are a lot of fun to drive. I would like to thank everybody who made the day possible.

Singapore was a tough event and I was very disappointed with the Singapore weekend in racing terms. The sponsor and partner events were great, the time I spend at Fraser Place was fantastic, and it is a great place to stay. The support from First Automobile was again sensational; this is a great company doing fantastic work throughout the whole Asian region.  My qualifying was disappointing with the engine cover coming loose and flapping in the breeze, this severely effected my performance with a 11th place start and difficult overtaking on the street circuit. I managed to get back to 6th for both races. This correlates to two third places in the championship with the guest drivers racing from around the world. I am working hard to turn my luck around for the rest of the season.

After coming back from Singapore I have resumed study at university and fitness training. I am looking forward to Japan and Macau the remaining events for 2009.

Okayama in Japan will be a unique challenge none of the teams nor drivers have raced the formula BMW’s there before. Macau an amazing circuit that punishes the smallest of errors. Its tight, technical and long with part of the track only 3metres wide. In the Formula BMW we reach 230km/h on the massive straight. It should be a lot of fun!

Don’t forget to check out the video blog on tweet reel, http://tweetreel.com/woottonracing for a behind the scenes view of racing Formula BMW.

Thanks for all your support - Chris

Here I am in Singapore, a great city and one of the most exciting events on the Formula BMW calendar.

This event is like a home race for me, I have a lot of support from Singapore, First Automobile is a great supporter of mine.  They started in Singapore and now are stretching the business throughout Asia. Just recently, First Automobile announced that it will join hands with China's state-owned Tianjin Haowu Electromechanical & Auto Trade Co. Ltd in a multi-million dollar landmark venture to establish the largest global automobile import and export facility in Asia. Check out www.firstautomobile.com.sg .

I am excited about the this weekends FBMW round in Singapore. The BMW racing should be mega with a field of 20 cars including the current European FBMW champion. We are supporting the only F1 night race on the calendar this is an impressive event with parties, live bands and lots of off track activities, the atmosphere here is electric!

For this round we are staying at Frazer Place, beautiful apartments, they have supported us with accommodation for the week and it has been first class! If you come to Singapore you should try and stay here it is fantastic! www.frasershospitality.com/fplace.php

It should be a brilliant weekend and I cannot wait for this upcoming weekend, thanks for all your support and interest. Don’t forget to check out the video blog on my twitter woottonracing where I am uploading a video blog to give you more insight to what the racing is all about - Chris

It was phenomenal to see Mark Webber become Australia’s third ever Formula 1 winner at the Nurburgring last weekend. It was special enough to see him record his first pole position, but to go on and win the race in the fashion he did was remarkable.

Having competed alongside him at the Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge twice, I have an understanding of what Mark puts into being at the top of his game and to hear the pure elation in his voice when he crossed the line was not only very moving, but inspirational.

Since I was born, I’ve never heard the Australian national anthem on an F1 podium – whilst we are almost used to it with bikes and the Olympics, to hear it and not a German or English national anthem in F1 was particularly special.

When he got the drive through penalty for the incident at the start, I thought he was done, but in the end I don’t think anything would have stopped him winning, he was on it!
 It’s just brilliant to think that Mark is now in a position to challenge for the World Championship and we’ll be riding with him for the rest of the season. Seeing him cross the line first has inspired me even further to make it to Formula 1.

In my racing world, unfortunately, the latest round of Formula BMW Pacific was postponed from this weekend through to August 14-16 at Sentul in Indonesia. While I’d love to be racing this weekend, it gives us another month to prepare and meet with potential sponsors to assist us throughout the remainder of this year and beyond.

We’re kicking the Supporter’s Club into top gear also – make sure you join through the site, it only costs a dollar a day!

Recently I had a fantastic trip to Europe. I attended the BMW Sauber F1 Team factory in Hinwil, Switzerland, then a couple of days later attended the Goodwood Festival of Speed. All up we were only there for a week, so it was hectic – but very enjoyable.

The first stop on the trip was Switzerland, I have been there a couple of times before and I really like it. It’s a lovely green country and all the people are nice and friendly.

The purpose of the trip was to visit the BMW Sauber F1 Team Factory – all the Formula BMW Junior drivers are invited and we were extremely privileged to visit. It is an amazing factory. From the outside, it isn’t a lot to look at, but on the inside – it’s very beautiful with some amazing technology.

We started the day with a number of seminars on vehicle dynamics and sponsorship, then went for a tour of the factory.

It’s a lovely, clean, large environment which has created some very fast F1 cars! After the tour we enjoyed a nice lunch and then had a few more learning activities.

It was a great day and I learnt some valuable and very interesting things. Looking at the F1 cars on the track, never in your wildest dreams could you imagine how some of the components had been manufactured.
The demonstration of how the wind tunnel works in particular was fascinating. The technology is out of this world. After seeing the process first hand, you get a real appreciation for how the technology can be transferred from Formula 1 to BMW’s road cars.

We then went back to England and to the Goodwood Festival of Speed. It was an amazing experience and one that I will cherish forever. The cars were amazing, the old cars, the new cars – when you thought you’d seen something pretty awesome, something even more awesome would come along!

Everything there was incredibly memorable, but my favourite moment was seeing Ayrton Senna’s 1988 World Championship winning McLaren being driven by Bruno Senna. It was a stunning car and a stunning display.
One of the things that stood out most for me was the amount of people at Goodwood and the atmosphere was electric. The crowd was very respectful and knowledgeable. It was very different from the Australian or Asian atmosphere at racing.

I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Europe and look forward to racing there next year!

I arrived in Moree after a 6 hour drive on Thursday night for a two day visit. It is a cute town of around 10,000 people in country (north-west) New South Wales.

Prior to heading up there, one of the local magazines gave me some coverage. After doing the interview, I expected a small article, but was surprised to receive the magazine and see myself staring back at me from the cover!

On the Friday, I gave a motivational speech with a few of the local unemployed people talking about my experiences as a Formula BMW Junior, which was great. They listened and were very friendly.

After that I went to the local school and met some of the students, signed a few autographs and took some photos. It was great fun and the kids were genuinely interested in what I was talking about.

Moree has a high indigenous population and it was fantastic to speak to the local Aboriginal kids. Seeing how they live and listening to their experiences was a very worthwhile experience for me. It's not unfair to say that Moree has a certain reputation that precedes it, but visiting the town has really changed my perception of what the town is about.

On the Saturday, I attended 'Moree on a Plate' - a local festival showcasing some local produce. It was a very cool event and great to experience a slower paced country lifestyle.

I did not know what to expect in Moree, but I was very pleased with the time I spent there. All the locals were friendly to say the least and there was some great local produce I got to sample at the Plate event. I would definitely go back for a visit!

Special thanks to J'aimee & Jason Brookerfor inviting me along. It was a great event!

The launch of the Chris Wootton Supporter’s Club was a huge success. An excellent crowd of just over 100 people attended the launch at Roman Empire Restaurant, Carindale.

The simple theme for the Supporter’s Club is that for a Dollar a Day you can get on board and take advantage of many different specials which companies that support me are offering. If you use it to your advantage – you’ll get more than your contribution back in benefits!

The evening was busy for me with lots of friends and family on hand from all over the country. It started with greeting the guests…and keeping an eye on the Formula 1 from China!

After entrees, we were treated to a talk by Leigh Matthews. He was an excellent AFL player in his time and more recently coach of the Brisbane Lions, guiding them to three Premierships. He was an interesting speaker and I think everyone there got a lot out of what he had to say.

After Leigh spoke it was my turn and I had a question and answer session. A range of questions were asked and I hopefully left everybody with a greater knowledge of racing and Formula BMW.

We opened it up to the floor and with many people not having had much exposure to motorsport in the past, hopefully we were able to give them an insight into what we do.

The meal supplied by Roman Empire was excellent as usual. It is a splendid cafe style restaurant, run by excellent people and employs great staff, who donated their time and hard work to make the evening a huge success.

The night concluded with auctions of a number of items donated by various companies. There were some motorsport items, but the most hotly contested item was a signed Australian Cricket Bat donated by 3 Mobile.

The auction finished off the formal proceedings and raised a considerable amount of money towards my Formula BMW campaign. After that, I had the opportunity to mingle among the guests and farewell them.

The launch of the Supporter’s Club went extremely well and we’d urge everyone to get on board and take full advantage of what is being offered by the other Supporter’s.

I would love to thank everybody who came and everybody who put in a massive effort behind the scenes to organise the night.
Make sure you visit the Supporter’s Club section on my website – www.chriswootton.com and sign up!

The opening race meeting of Formula BMW Pacific for 2009 was a support event to the second round of the Formula 1 World Championship at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia.

My race engineer, Greg Wheeler, had completely re-built the car between testing last weekend and practice, so I basically had to start again. It was the first time that Greg and I have worked with each other during a race weekend and of course, the first race meeting I’ve done with Mark Goddard and the guys from Eurasia.

Greg is awesome to work with and can translate what I tell him to the car. It went better every time that I went out in testing and the same was true in this race meeting. I think we’re going to have a great year together.

The weekend started with official practice on Friday where I was fourth quickest. I was happy with that as it was a good basis for the qualifying session.

Qualifying was very tight and very exciting. I qualified second for both races, the car was excellent, the team did a superb job for the entire weekend. I missed out on pole by six-one-hundredths of a second, which is so close it’s not funny.

It was great to see Alan Webber, Mark's Dad, who came down to watch qualifying and the races with Dad. It seems like Red Bull really have their act together and have a really good car this year, which is great for Mark.

We returned on Saturday for the first race and it was hot, as usual. I had a poor start, and damaged my front wing. I was running fourth when first and second both spun. After that, I remained second for the remainder of the race. I was extremely happy with that result, because I was losing a lot of time through the high speed corners and up the straights due to the damaged wing.

Sepang is very technical and relies heavily on aerodynamics. Many of the corners are fast and you are on the throttle during the corner, which means the wings are incredibly important due to the high load on the car. To not have downforce at the front of the car is a huge disadvantage, but thankfully I was able to overcome that.

The team fixed the car overnight and we were hoping for better the next day. I really wanted to get a decent start.

Getting to the track on Sunday, it was humid as usual in Malaysia and the clouds were hanging around. We were the last race before the Formula 1 Grand Prix, so had plenty of waiting around to do.

The GP2 Asia race was ready to go out and a huge downpour just dumped itself on the circuit. There was so much water (it was as bad if not worse than when they red-flagged the F1 race). After they got that race out of the way, the track was drying and we weren’t sure what it was going to be like for the Formula BMW Pacific event.

The Eurasia Motorsport team had me ready to go. We initially had wet Michelins on for the race, but after the sighting lap we changed to slicks, as did the rest of the field. The track was damp in places.

The crowd was huge in the grandstands. We were on around an hour and a half before F1, so it had built up nicely, everyone was getting primed for the big show. The atmosphere was just awesome. We were hoping to come away with the win and put on a show for them!

This time I had a good start. I had a substantial lead and was making good time on the field until the final turn where I found a wet patch and went off on the exit of the corner. I was passed and was in third position. I quickly regained second. The race was shortened to half distance due to timing issues and I fought off a late challenge to retain second.

Gary (Thompson) really pushed me hard for the final stages. I would have liked to have the full race distance to try and get up for the win, but it wasn’t to be.

After the race, I received my trophy from Dr. Mario Thiessen. He takes an active interest in Formula BMW and said after the race that it’s only a matter of time before a graduate of Formula BMW Pacific makes it into Formula 1. There are currently five drivers in F1 that have been through the Formula BMW system.

We settled in then for the Formula 1 race. We were keeping a keen eye on Mark. He was going very well and we were pretty excited with his progression through the field. It was a shame they had to red flag the race, as it was shaping up to be really cool.

Everyone around BMW was happy for Heidfeld to finish on the podium.

After the race we had a quiet dinner and prepared to come home. I’m home for a few weeks and then will head back for round two, which is also at Sepang.

In a couple of weeks, we’re launching my Supporter’s Club in Brisbane, which will be a great event. The Roman Empire restaurant at Carindale are putting on the night for us and former Brisbane Lions Head Coach, Leigh Matthews will be the guest speaker. It should be a good night. Tickets are available through my website.

To wrap up the weekend overall, I was happy with the results. We’re really looking forward to a competitive Championship. We’ve shown we’ve got the pace, hopefully it will translate into race wins and the Championship!

I have to thank Greg Wheeler and the Eurasia Motorsport team for their efforts throughout the weekend, along with Matthias and the Formula BMW Pacific crew. BMW have put a lot of faith in me and I’m happy we can start the Series well for them.