Jim Beam Racing News

Top Ten Finishes for Jim Beam Racing in the West.

It was another strong performance for The Team with both James Courtney and Steven Johnson finishing Race 23 in the Top 10 at the BigPond 300 at Barbagello Raceway in Perth this afternoon.

Courtney and Johnson qualified earlier in the day for the Top Ten Shoot Out with Courtney second out for his flying lap. Heading through the first two sectors, Courtney was on fast lap but lost valuable time by going wide at the last turn which would see him start from P10.
Johnson also took command of the circuit and was on fast sector splits from start to finish to lead the Top Ten with four cars to qualify with Johnson ending up with P3 for Race 23.

With the return of the sprint tyre for this Round, the field was reasonably divided on the grid when it came to tyre strategy. Both Johnson and Courtney started well but it was not long before the sprint tyre began to show an immediate advantage in these conditions.

Johnson and Courtney stayed out in the traffic until lap 25 when Johnson pitted for rear tyres and the compulsory 50 litres of fuel. Courtney meanwhile, came in on the next lap to take the sprint tyre which would see him move through the field in the back half of the race.

When the chequered flag fell, Courtney finished in 4th and Johnson in 10th which was a solid performance in the conditions.

“It was a pretty good day for the team” said Johnson

“We have a 200km race tomorrow and we haven’t used our sprint tyres which as we saw today seems to give a bigger than expected advantage around here.”
“We had a good qualifying session and at the end of the day a good race result, and I am looking forward to seeing what we can tomorrow.”

Courtney was also pleased with the performance of the car and of the team.
“The car was well set up for the sprint tyre here which was obvious when we moved our way through the field from 10th to 4th at the end of the race”, said Courtney.
“We still have good sets of control tyres for tomorrow’s race and we will be looking at the data from today which will assist with our strategy for tomorrow. At some point the sprint tyre will lose its advantage, so we will be ready as 84 laps around here will be a long and strategic race”.

Qualifying for tomorrow’s race starts at 10am local time with Race 24 kicking off at 12.35pm.

Print This Article

Twitter Update

JimBeamRacing...