Jim Beam Racing News
Johnson gets his first podium in the West
22 November 2009
Johnson gets his first podium in the West .
Steven Johnson today took his first podium in Western Australia finishing second behind Craig Lowndes in Race 24 of the V8 Supercar Championship Series at the BigPond 300 in Perth.
Johnson had earlier qualified 9th in this morning’s 20 minute session and headed into this afternoon’s race with a good choice of control tyres, but more importantly, a fresh set of the Dunlop sprint tyres that had performed well around the 2.42km circuit based on yesterday’s results.
Starting on control tyres, Johnson had a clean break from the line and was in touch with those teams that opted to run the sprint tyre early and maintained his position within the field when the pit window opened. Things seemed to continue on well until the first safety car for the weekend was called when Todd Kelly and Lee Holdsworth collided at the final turn adjacent to pit lane entry which provided anxious moments for the field and some confusion when the safety car was deployed.
Johnson was out of the mayhem and was called into pit lane for fuel and a full set of sprint tyres only to rejoin the field and pass the Safety car that was positioned at the edge of Turn 6. After several more laps, the race went green and Johnson began to bring the leading pack back to him while conserving tyres to ensure that he could make it to the flag on the sprint tyres. It was a very solid strategy to implement which would see Johnson finished second and take his third podium for the year.
“We had banked on the sprint tyre doing 30 – 32 laps but we had to drive straight and be sensible” said Johnson at the post race press conference.
“If you want to make the sprint tyre last you need to be about a half a second quicker each lap than those guys on the control tyre otherwise you simply don’t make the distance. It was about getting on the throttle as gently as you can, and then moving beside the guy in front to get position for the next turn, which is what we did today”.
“It was a great result today and this weekend for Jim Beam Racing”.
Johnson’s team mate James Courtney qualified 8th but had used most of his sprint tyres yesterday in Race 23.
“We were confident that the sprint tyre still had some laps in it for the longer race, so we elected to start with them to see how much of a gap we could make before coming into pits” said Courtney which is exactly what happened off the race start line.
Courtney quickly moved through the field but in doing so utilised the remainder of the sprint tyre before coming in for the first of two pit stops for fuel and tyres. At the safety car, Courtney was re-fuelled to come home but had to contend with finishing 10th for the day.
“We had a good start and a few minor issues with the car during the race, but to finish 10th was a good result for the Team. Steve did a fantastic job today and it was great to see him get his first podium here at Barbagello.”
This weekend’s result, keeps Johnson in 5th place and Courtney in 8th in the Drivers Championships while Jim Beam Racing maintains 3rd place in the Teams Championships.
The last event for the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series will be in just under two weeks time at the Telstra 500 at Homebush Sydney.
Driver Championship Points
1. Jamie Whincup 3175
2. Will Davison 2894
3. Garth Tander 2766
4. Craig Lowndes 2544
5. Steven Johnson 2177
8. James Courtney 1988
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