First corner incident ruins Johnson's day
5/7/2004 1:48 (Press Release) -
Shell Helix Racing's Steve Johnson was eagerly awaiting the start of today's Queensland V8 Supercar race at Queensland Raceway; little did he know that ten-seconds into the race his day would be all but over.
A first corner incident between Steve Ellery, Greg Murphy and John Bowe forced Johnson off the track, causing major damage to his Shell Ford.
"It all happened pretty quickly but I swerved off the track to miss the incident, John Bowe's Ford hit me on the left-hand side of the car and it ripped of my exhaust system," Steve Johnson said.
"I didn't know the extent of the damage until I got into the pits. I thought it was my left-hand wheel that was in trouble and simply needed it to be replaced, next thing I'm being asked is to park it (the Ford).
"Apart from replacing the exhaust system it also broke the rear left suspension.
"The team did a pretty good job to replace all of this and get me out again only seven laps down."
Later in the race Johnson's Falcon was brought back in so the team could do a check on the rear diff.
"The Ford didn't feel right at the rear, then my race engineer was asking me to pit thinking there might be a break to the diff," Johnson said.
"They checked it, removed the spindle and got me out on track again."
Despite the problems Johnson was very complimentary of the Shell Ford's performance.
"We had a lot of problems out there that were not our fault and still the Shell BA was competitive," Johnson said.
"The car had really strong pace so it was really a weekend of what could have been."
Johnson finished the race in 24th place.
Johnson's teammate Warren Luff fared a bit better crossing the finish line in 15th place.
"The Ford wasn't too bad early in the race but when I made contact with Jason Bargwanna it unsettled the rear end," Warren Luff said.
"There was nothing we could do about it, we just had to live with it.
"The race package was strong, we had some good speed and I'm disappointed to have dropped through the field.
"I think that both Steve and I could have made the top ten had we not run into trouble.
"Overall it wasn't the greatest day for the team, but we'll keep plugging away at it and I'm sure our time will come – sooner rather than later."
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