Johnson secures 10th in the championship
11/1/2005 16:08 (Press Release) -
Shell Helix Racing's Steven Johnson has done what he set out to do, finish the 2004 V8 Supercar season in the top 10. Coming into the final round of the series 46 points behind Garth Tander, Johnson earned 142 points to Tander's 74 and took the final championship top ten place.
Johnson finished with 1416 points (10th) and Tander 1396 (11th).
Johnson was very happy with his weekend.
"It was always going to be tough to pass Tander (in the Championship)," Steve Johnson said.
"I was definitely not taking anything for granted, even after Saturday's race when all we needed to do today was finish both races ahead of Tander.
"I only needed to have a spin or worse and I was in trouble.
"We knew we had form on our side though, we've been in the top ten for the past five rounds. We've really finished the season off strongly, that's for sure.
"As for Garth, he's struggled and had a few luckless drives, so we felt that we had a real shot at taking that final top ten spot."
Even though Johnson stayed ahead of Tander for most of the day, he didn't start to breath easy until the final race was over.
"After today's first race I knew I was in a good position, being 26 points ahead of Tander going into that last race," Johnson said.
"But there were still 64 points up for grabs and anything could happen.
"I basically held my breath until the pit stop window closed on lap 28 in the final race. We pitted early and Tander stayed out. He was obviously watching the weather.
"If it had rained before the window closed we were stuffed 'cause he would have put on wets and we would have had to stop a second time.
"Fortunately the rain held out, the Ford was strong, I kept out of trouble and was able to bring it home. Even though Tander finishing in-front of me in the final race it didn't hurt me."
Johnson was happy to see how much the team had improved since April.
"This weekend gave every team the opportunity to compare their performance with the first Eastern Creek round of the year in April," Johnson said.
"I qualified 27th in April and finished sixth in a wet race. This time around I qualified 12th and finished seventh overall, but in the dry. That's a big improvement, so naturally the whole team is thrilled."
Johnson started the first race of the day in ninth place and finished in sixth. Warren Luff started in 15th and finished 14th. In the second race Johnson started sixth and finished 13th while Luff started 14th and ended 19th.
Overall this weekend Johnson placed seventh for the round and Luff was 16th.
Johnson finished the 2004 Championship season 10th outright and Warren Luff ended his first V8 season in 21st.
Release Date: 05/12/2004
Shell Helix - Dick Johnson Racing
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