I'm very excited, especially as this will be my first trip overseas! I've always liked racing games since I first played Virtua Racing on my Sega Megadrive, so having played racing games since then (including the original PGR games) has certainly helped. During the qualifying period of the tournament I spent about 8 hours in total trying to get a lap time fast enough for a spot in the top 64 qualifiers so I could move on to the semi-finals.

During the semi-finals I spent anywhere from 1-3 hours a day practising for a week. Some of the other competitors and I would practice by racing together online on Xbox Live. This made it a lot more fun as it often ended in novelty races, like racing around the track in reverse or trying to get eight cars to team drift. It was also very helpful as we gave each other tips on when to brake and accelerate around corners, what the best racing line was, and improving our racing techniques such as counter-steering by purposely spinning each other out.

There were a lot of tough competitors, but TakahashiRyoske and kimchopin were definitely some of the hardest that I came across. During practising they would rarely make an error, so if I accidentally hit a wall there would be little to no chance of catching up to them. If I didn't make any mistakes, they'd either still be just ahead of me or filling up my entire rear view mirror, putting constant pressure on me not to stuff up!

Of course! The racing was so tight that a little accidental bump or nudge from a competitor could send you flying into a barrier and put you out of the race. This was especially the case with the first corner, as it simply wasn't wide enough to allow 8 cars through so there was always a big pile-up. It ended up being luck of the draw as to whether you made it through the first corner unharmed or if you were spun out and put in last place. This wasn't helped either by a few dirty racers who were intentionally ramming into everybody. With each race being so unpredictable, I always felt that I might not win. Winning involves a little bit of skill and a lot of luck!

The qualifying and semi-final races all used the same car, an automatic Lamborghini Gallardo, so nobody had an unfair advantage. I think it was a great choice as it handles well, is easy to control and doesn't go ridiculously fast. The finals in Italy will consist of three different races, using the Lamborghini Miura, Lamborghini Diablo GT and the Lamborghini Murcielago RGT, each in manual transmission.

I've racked up 55h39m52s since I bought PGR3 back on the launch of the Xbox 360. It is one of the few games I keep coming back to once I've finished because it has great replay value, especially if you have Xbox Live. I am a huge fan of the first two PGR games, it was the reason why I bought an Xbox. I loved the ridiculously huge jumps in San Francisco on PGR 1, and it was great fun smoking up the tyres around the corners of Sydney streets on PGR 2. I like the PGR games because they focus on drifting and style, rather than proper racing discipline like most other racing games do.

Qualifying from the Asian region has earned me one of 12 spots in the finals for the PGR3 Xbox Live World Tournament being held at the Lamborghini Factory in Bologna, Italy. The prizes I've won include a PGR3 faceplate, an Xbox Live Lamborghini Jacket, a return trip for me and a guest with all meals, accommodation and transfers included, and to top it off $250US spending money. Not too shabby at all!

You can always try hiding in my suitcase :-) I am taking my brother as he has always wanted to go to Italy, and now that he's getting a free ride off me he'll owe me big time! There are also two other Aussies going who made it through to the finals, so we'll be cheering each other on and hoping that one of us wins it.

I am quietly confident as I finished in first place for three out of the four semi-final races, but I am worried about the European racers as they set some amazingly quick qualifying lap times and seem to really know their stuff. Naturally I'm not worried about the yanks though because everybody knows they can only drive in straight lines :P

Ever since I saw the Lamborghini Countach in the movie The Cannonball Run I've been a fan of Lamborghini. Their cars sound great, look sleek, and go like stink. I can't wait to see all their cars up close in person at the Lamborghini factory. Hopefully I will get to see some being put together on the production line and I'll be begging for a ride in one!

I'll be in Italy for five days, with the tournament only taking one day I'll have plenty of time for sight seeing. I'll definitely head over to the Ferrari museum to check out some of their cars, and I plan on heading into Venice for a day to do the normal tourist thing. I'll also be checking out the pubs, shops and tourist attractions in Bologna.

When I first entered the tournament I did it simply to see how I ranked compared to other players from around the world. I didn't think I would end up qualifying let alone come first in the Asian region semi-finals. I think it would be cool if there was a worldwide war games tournament for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter or Battlefield 2: Modern Combat.