Peter Burnitt has to face the daunting Homebush V8 Utes finale on his own.

The Logan City Electrical MD will be the only Big Gun car fielded due to the fact that his team-mate and son in law Brad “Packers” Patton is sitting out the round after his WICKED / CHILL XR8 Falcon was declared a write-off after its power meeting with the wall at the Gold Coast 600.

Burnitt is not shying away from the Homebush experience however, working hard on the one part of his game that he knows needs improvement.

“Qualifying lets me down time and time again,” he concedes, “and it wrecks my whole weekend most of the time because I’m always playing catch up. Anyone will tell you when you start down the back there’s a much greater risk of getting involved in an accident. I need to work on better qualifying and much better starting positions.”

In order to do that, Burnitt has been working on his track time but with limited test sessions available he’s turned to the next best thing to conquer the problem.

“I’ve been racing karts every week,” he grins, “and I think it’s really helping my reactions, my reflexes and generally my race condition. I know that a go-kart is a long way from a V8 Ute but it’s got to help being behind the wheel so often. I definitely feel more confident coming in.”

Burnitt has a couple of reasons for feeling confident too; his form at this event last year was encouraging.

“In the last race of the weekend last year I was up to ninth but I grazed the wall and it dropped me back to 19th by the time the race was over. Up until then I felt really comfortable around Homebush and I really enjoyed the track. I can’t wait to get back there this weekend.”

So he might be the ‘lone Big Gun’ this weekend but Peter “Gangsta” Burnitt thinks he’ll have the firepower he needs to finish the year on a high.

Ends release…