Jim Beam Racing’s Steven Johnson posted the 7th fastest time after practice for the Clipsal 500 today while team mate James Moffat was 20th in his first outing on the Adelaide street circuit as part of the Championship Series.
It was a story of small strategic steps for The Team, with tyre conservation and baseline set-up the aims of the day.
“The overall result was ok,” said Johnson.
“We just worked away bit by bit and just did some changes that didn’t get us lost and will give us a good baseline for the weekend.”
“We probably should have been a bit quicker but I made a few mistakes on my (fly) lap. But that’s no big deal ... it’s only Friday.”
Johnson also paid tribute after practice to Mark “Numbers” Woolfrey, Jim Beam Racing’s Chief Engineer who died on March 10.
“To be up in the top ten is great but it would be nice if Numbers was here,” said Johnson.
“Numbers had a lot of great stuff in his brain that he wanted to try and the fact that it will never make it onto the track is very sad.”
"Engineer “Greg (Wheeler) has come on board and is doing a great job.
“Nothing is going to make up for twelve years working with Numbers, but Greg is a good bloke and he’s got a lot of good knowledge.
“Our approach we are just working through things and not making any silly changes, not reinventing the wheel.
“We know where the car needs to be set-up as a base which is ok. From there we are not making any drastic changes that could get us lost.
“We’ve worked with him before and while we are not quite starting from square one, I think we are just fundamentally changing the car as you would if you didn’t know the cars and would just make basic changes to make them better.
"So we won’t be doing silly things, we’ll just be trying to tune the car to where we want it to be”
Rookie James Moffat made a clean start to his Clipsal campaign but said he had been hoping for faster times in the number 18 Falcon FG.
“The day wasn’t too bad,” said Moffat.
“Obviously we would have liked to have been a bit quicker, but all-in-all, it was a pretty good day and we got plenty of stuff done.
Moffat said that The Team was confident they could improve on today’s times.
“We probably weren’t getting the most out of the new tyres today, so we’ll have a look overnight and see if we can improve that for qualifying.
“But I think as a race package we are sort of there, or there a bouts.
“There’s still a little bit to go but we are pretty comfortable with what we’ve got.
“There’s no need for drastic changes, just a few tweaks here and there.”
Qualifying for race three in the V8 Supercar Championship Series kicks off at 10:10am, Adelaide time
It was a story of small strategic steps for The Team, with tyre conservation and baseline set-up the aims of the day.
“The overall result was ok,” said Johnson.
“We just worked away bit by bit and just did some changes that didn’t get us lost and will give us a good baseline for the weekend.”
“We probably should have been a bit quicker but I made a few mistakes on my (fly) lap. But that’s no big deal ... it’s only Friday.”
Johnson also paid tribute after practice to Mark “Numbers” Woolfrey, Jim Beam Racing’s Chief Engineer who died on March 10.
“To be up in the top ten is great but it would be nice if Numbers was here,” said Johnson.
“Numbers had a lot of great stuff in his brain that he wanted to try and the fact that it will never make it onto the track is very sad.”
"Engineer “Greg (Wheeler) has come on board and is doing a great job.
“Nothing is going to make up for twelve years working with Numbers, but Greg is a good bloke and he’s got a lot of good knowledge.
“Our approach we are just working through things and not making any silly changes, not reinventing the wheel.
“We know where the car needs to be set-up as a base which is ok. From there we are not making any drastic changes that could get us lost.
“We’ve worked with him before and while we are not quite starting from square one, I think we are just fundamentally changing the car as you would if you didn’t know the cars and would just make basic changes to make them better.
"So we won’t be doing silly things, we’ll just be trying to tune the car to where we want it to be”
Rookie James Moffat made a clean start to his Clipsal campaign but said he had been hoping for faster times in the number 18 Falcon FG.
“The day wasn’t too bad,” said Moffat.
“Obviously we would have liked to have been a bit quicker, but all-in-all, it was a pretty good day and we got plenty of stuff done.
Moffat said that The Team was confident they could improve on today’s times.
“We probably weren’t getting the most out of the new tyres today, so we’ll have a look overnight and see if we can improve that for qualifying.
“But I think as a race package we are sort of there, or there a bouts.
“There’s still a little bit to go but we are pretty comfortable with what we’ve got.
“There’s no need for drastic changes, just a few tweaks here and there.”
Qualifying for race three in the V8 Supercar Championship Series kicks off at 10:10am, Adelaide time