Jim Beam Racing's Steven Johnson jumped into the top ten of the V8 Supercars Drivers Championship after finishing 9th in race 6 at the IT400 Hamilton today.
The changeable weather played havoc in qualifying, when a sudden onslaught of rain early in the session had the whole field pitting for wet tyres.
Teams lucky enough to get in a quick early lap were sitting pretty on the qualifying table, those who weren't had to battle it out for the remainder of the grid.
"It wasn't a great day," said Johnson post race.
"We got caught out by the weather in qualifying and had to make do with a P14 start".
An uncharateristic stall at the beginning of Race 6 saw Johnson battling from the back of the field.
"I stalled on the start line and went back to pretty much last place and just battled on from there," said Johnson.
"The car was on a half-dry, half-wet set-up and it wasn't great in the dry conditions.
"We were hoping for rain which didn't eventuate, and that really hurt us.
"The car would have been much better with a dry set-up - which everybody else probably went with - but we thought it was going to rain a bit, given that we had had half a dozen showers before the race started.
"But we hung in there and finished 9th which I guess is a good result.
"Today wasn't as good as what we expected and yesterday wasn't either, so in that regard we are just a bit disappointed.
"But we've got a relatively straight car, we earned some good points and we are back in the top ten of the Championship which is a step in the right direction.
For team mate James Moffat, what should have been a 12th placing turened into 17th when he was turned by Karl Reindler in the final stages of the race, causing extensive damage to the #18 Falcon.
"We're not sure what happened at this stage but it's being investigated by the officials," said Team Manager Malcolm Swetnam.
Starting P28 on the grid, the rookie put in a mature performance to claw his way back through the field.
Moffat managed to stay out of trouble in conditions that ended the race of several more seasoned performers.
"Moff did a good job early on," said Swetnam.
"We were a little bit radical at the beginning, bringing him in for fuel because he was on the back row, but he was back with the pack after a half a lap so we were pleased with the way he responded."
"We had a little bit of an issue with a set of tyres during the race in term of pressures - which hobbled him a bit - But he knuckled down.
"He's still learning and we certainly can't grumble with today's performance.
The changeable weather played havoc in qualifying, when a sudden onslaught of rain early in the session had the whole field pitting for wet tyres.
Teams lucky enough to get in a quick early lap were sitting pretty on the qualifying table, those who weren't had to battle it out for the remainder of the grid.
"It wasn't a great day," said Johnson post race.
"We got caught out by the weather in qualifying and had to make do with a P14 start".
An uncharateristic stall at the beginning of Race 6 saw Johnson battling from the back of the field.
"I stalled on the start line and went back to pretty much last place and just battled on from there," said Johnson.
"The car was on a half-dry, half-wet set-up and it wasn't great in the dry conditions.
"We were hoping for rain which didn't eventuate, and that really hurt us.
"The car would have been much better with a dry set-up - which everybody else probably went with - but we thought it was going to rain a bit, given that we had had half a dozen showers before the race started.
"But we hung in there and finished 9th which I guess is a good result.
"Today wasn't as good as what we expected and yesterday wasn't either, so in that regard we are just a bit disappointed.
"But we've got a relatively straight car, we earned some good points and we are back in the top ten of the Championship which is a step in the right direction.
For team mate James Moffat, what should have been a 12th placing turened into 17th when he was turned by Karl Reindler in the final stages of the race, causing extensive damage to the #18 Falcon.
"We're not sure what happened at this stage but it's being investigated by the officials," said Team Manager Malcolm Swetnam.
Starting P28 on the grid, the rookie put in a mature performance to claw his way back through the field.
Moffat managed to stay out of trouble in conditions that ended the race of several more seasoned performers.
"Moff did a good job early on," said Swetnam.
"We were a little bit radical at the beginning, bringing him in for fuel because he was on the back row, but he was back with the pack after a half a lap so we were pleased with the way he responded."
"We had a little bit of an issue with a set of tyres during the race in term of pressures - which hobbled him a bit - But he knuckled down.
"He's still learning and we certainly can't grumble with today's performance.