Brack

I arrived in Tokyo, Japan on Sunday and stayed there for a couple of days. What an amazing town Tokyo is. Japan has great food and friendly people.

It reminds me a lot of New York City. There are lots of neon signs and lots of people. It is pretty neat to experience other cultures. That is one of the many fascinating things that I get to experience in my career.

I came up to the track Tuesday and it's a great feeling to return here as a defending champion. I got my first win here last year and I think we have a good chance to do it again this year. I have said it before, but the competition in this series is the best in the world. Any one of these 20 drivers can win in any race in this series.

It's now Wednesday over here in the land of the rising sun and I'm at the track with the team and my engineering staff. It's about 70 degrees and sunny. Hopefully, the weather will stay like this for the rest of the weekend. Last year, we had cool temperatures and quite a bit of rain.

I went out and walked the track as I usually do. I do that because it gives you a different perspective of the turns, any bumps and other subtle things on the track surface. I brought a video camera with me this weekend for the first time. In 10 years or so, I want to have something to remember the places and tracks we visit. It will be fun to look back and remember all of the fun times and (hopefully) wins.

Twin Ring Motegi is a spectacular facility. They have a karting track, a road course and the Honda museum is awesome. There are a lot of older race cars, including Nigel Mansell's F1 car. If you are a race fan, it's a great place to visit.

As far as the track goes, Motegi is a very technical track that requires a precise setup to be fast. Although it is a 1.5-mile superspeedway, you have to lift on the throttle and downshift. It has an egg-shape design, which is similar to the Darlington (S.C.) track, only a lot faster. There are two distinct corners on this track which you have to approach differently.

We had a good setup on this track last year and I'm looking forward to getting on the track and seeing how we stack up against our competition. Last year, the top qualifying speed was over 215 mph! Only Fontana is a faster track that we race on.

Well, I need to go and talk to my engineers and work on our car setup for the weekend. Hopefully, I'll be talking about Team Target's first victory in next week's installment.

Kenny Brack, the driver of the No. 12 Lola for Target/Chip Ganassi Racing, will be providing a diary to ESPN.com throughout the CART season.