A dud wheel nut and the unforgiving concrete Clipsal canyon got the better of Jim Beam Racing’s Steven Johnson and James Moffat in Race 3 of the V8 Supercar Championship today.
Despite battling the effects of a virus, Johnson started P12 on the grid of the Adelaide street circuit.
“With a new engineering outfit in place this weekend, our strategy was to make small manageable changes,” said Johnson.
“And while I was disappointed not to make the shootout I think we did the best we could under the circumstances”
An aggressive start off the grid saw Johnson gain two places and by lap 23 he had settled nicely into 8th.
Maintaining position, Johnson had pitted on lap 26 for a tyre and fuel change when the rear passenger side wheel nut caught, losing 24 precious seconds and pushing him back down into 21st position.
“It was just one of those unlucky and frustrating things,” he said.
“I haven’t had the greatest of luck at Clipsal over the last couple of years.”
Johnson started to weave his way back through the field and opted to stay out when the majority of cars pitted during the safety car on lap 47.
“The guys had a good fuel strategy worked out that could have seen us back up the pointy end of the field,” said the # 17 Falcon driver.
“But a few late safety cars enabled the rest of the field to come in which didn’t work in our favour.”
Johnson battled his way to a creditable 11th placing in a race that saw plenty of carnage.
It was a baptism of fire for rookie James Moffat, the only driver in the field who had not competed at Clipsal in the Championship Series.
After a frustrating qualifying that saw him start P25, Moffat crashed out of the racing after making contact with Tony D’Alberto on lap 59.
“We probably should have started further up the grid,” said Moffat post race.
“There was a drama with the configuration on the dash during my quickest qualifying lap which cost a bit of time because I was distracted by that and missed a couple of gear changes.”
Despite starting at the rear of the grid Moffat had managed to claw his way up to 17th position before contact by Caruso pushed him back to 24th.
“The race wasn’t going too bad,” he said.
“I think our strategy was pretty reasonable but getting turned around by Caruso at the hairpin didn’t help.”
Moffat recovered and had made his way back to mid field when his race came to an untimely finish.
“It seemed like we were in a half reasonable position towards the end,” said the rookie.
“I had a go at passing Sladey up the inside of the hairpin and unfortunately the rears locked up.
“I half spun and D'Alberto clipped the front of me which tore the radiator and a few other bits off it and that was it for the day”
Race 4 qualifying for the Clipsal 500 kicks off at 10:45 Adelaide time.
Despite battling the effects of a virus, Johnson started P12 on the grid of the Adelaide street circuit.
“With a new engineering outfit in place this weekend, our strategy was to make small manageable changes,” said Johnson.
“And while I was disappointed not to make the shootout I think we did the best we could under the circumstances”
An aggressive start off the grid saw Johnson gain two places and by lap 23 he had settled nicely into 8th.
Maintaining position, Johnson had pitted on lap 26 for a tyre and fuel change when the rear passenger side wheel nut caught, losing 24 precious seconds and pushing him back down into 21st position.
“It was just one of those unlucky and frustrating things,” he said.
“I haven’t had the greatest of luck at Clipsal over the last couple of years.”
Johnson started to weave his way back through the field and opted to stay out when the majority of cars pitted during the safety car on lap 47.
“The guys had a good fuel strategy worked out that could have seen us back up the pointy end of the field,” said the # 17 Falcon driver.
“But a few late safety cars enabled the rest of the field to come in which didn’t work in our favour.”
Johnson battled his way to a creditable 11th placing in a race that saw plenty of carnage.
It was a baptism of fire for rookie James Moffat, the only driver in the field who had not competed at Clipsal in the Championship Series.
After a frustrating qualifying that saw him start P25, Moffat crashed out of the racing after making contact with Tony D’Alberto on lap 59.
“We probably should have started further up the grid,” said Moffat post race.
“There was a drama with the configuration on the dash during my quickest qualifying lap which cost a bit of time because I was distracted by that and missed a couple of gear changes.”
Despite starting at the rear of the grid Moffat had managed to claw his way up to 17th position before contact by Caruso pushed him back to 24th.
“The race wasn’t going too bad,” he said.
“I think our strategy was pretty reasonable but getting turned around by Caruso at the hairpin didn’t help.”
Moffat recovered and had made his way back to mid field when his race came to an untimely finish.
“It seemed like we were in a half reasonable position towards the end,” said the rookie.
“I had a go at passing Sladey up the inside of the hairpin and unfortunately the rears locked up.
“I half spun and D'Alberto clipped the front of me which tore the radiator and a few other bits off it and that was it for the day”
Race 4 qualifying for the Clipsal 500 kicks off at 10:45 Adelaide time.