www.stevejohnson.com.au - The Official Website of Steve Johnson

On Our Way to the Top End

There has been plenty happening lately. I’m sure you will have read about my ‘injury’ on our trip to Fiji for a mate’s wedding. I have had calls and emails asking everything from is my ankle OK to will they have to cut off my leg!!

What did happen was I lost my footing on wooden staircase at the hotel in Fiji and rolled my ankle. As soon as I got home I was off to ensure everything was OK and had scans to check the ankle and leg out.

I never thought I would be in doubt for Darwin and have been in good hands over the last two weeks and have done what I have been told to by the doctors. I have been doing some good weight training and swimming and resumed my regular workout with Jim Beam Racing fitness trainer Phil Young this week.

Although still a bit tender it is all looking good and I am really looking forward to the Darwin round. The team really has the momentum going now. Having James leading the Championship is great for everyone and I now need to put together some more good results.

The Saturday race at Winton was really pleasing although I was still one place of the podium. James really had the car for the Sunday race and deserved the win. We struggled a bit with the second set of tyres and got nailed on the last lap dropping a few spots

So now with the two rounds in Darwin & Townsville before the mid season break I am determined to get the #17 DJR Falcon further up the Top 10 ladder. There are plenty of points on offer and the gaps to the guys in front are not that great so my guys are really fired up to get some results.

Darwin is a great round and everyone is itching to get going after the cancelation of the Perth round.

Hope to see you in the Top End

Cheers,

Steve #17

Bahrain Practice Update

Hi from Bahrain,

Had a good practice session today.

Started the session on wets just to get used to the track so I don't waste my new tyres learning the new section.

The V8 Supercars are using the whole F1 track now. This is something we have all discussed at our previous visits here so it is good we now get to run on it. The track is so slippery. There is no grip at all. Everyone is really struggling after the first lap or so with massive tyre drop off.

Were looking pretty good and as last weekend we didn't use a second set of tyres at the end of practice. Want to keep them for Qual.

I could run similar times all session as others were dropping off anywhere up to 1.5 sec. Our tyre life seems to be pretty good so will see how we go in qual.

Finished 10th today and probably had 6 or 7 cars in front of me put on new tyres. So all is ok.

Let's see if I can keep my qual average high here. (Qual average is 3rd from the 3 events here) It's going to be a tyre war here at the end of the race so whoever has the best tyre life is going to go really well as the 200km races are the longest we have ever had here.

I will update you all tomorrow.

Cheers

Steve

Abu Dhabi Practice Report

Hi All,

Practice went ok. We didn't use out 2nd set of tyres as a lot in front of us did. We're looking ok at the moment but qualifying will tell.

We worked through our program and made some good gains and I think we are about 5th or 6th fastest of the people who didn't use new rubber.

Track is awesome and a lot of fun. It's such an impressive place and what they have built is mind blowing.

There are a lot of people cutting the track and using outside the lines where they shouldn't be. Whincup and Van Giz got their fastest times taken off them because of that. It will be interesting to see who does what in qual.

cheers

Steve Johnson

Phillip Island 500k - Friday September 11

The endurance series kicked off today at a windy Phillip Island. As always you see many new combinations of drivers and car liveries. For Jim Beam Racing, we had James and me in my usual # 17 and Webby & Luffy in the # 18 JBR Fords. We had spent time since Qld in a training camp and many hours at DJR working on pit stop practice and driver changes. The guys are really well drilled and James and I share very similar views on the setup, so all was good when we rolled out onto the track this morning.

As I have noted in the last couple of rounds, our tyre bank for these practice sessions is not great as I have been able to complete every race so far without a DNF. We both ran quite a few productive sessions today but still need to tweak the set up a bit for this challenging and high sped track.

We were thereabouts in every session and tried one set of new tyres towards the end of the final stint. I was about 3/10ths up on my best lap when 'Rowdy' my engineer called me in to give James a last run in the dying minutes of the seesion and we finished overall in 13th place.

Friday times were a bit all over the place with some teams posting very good times but many of them were on new or slightly used rubber. As always tyres will play a huge role in this 500k race. It can get a bit frustrating in practice when you know the car has the speed but the times do not reflect it. We now will sift through the data and make changes before the qualifying sessions.

Hope to see all the DJR fans at the Island over the weekend

Cheers

Steve

Queensland Raceway - Friday 21st August

First day of practice today has proved to be a very solid hit out for both of the Jim Beam Racing Fords. After Practice B James and I were first and second with good times straight up. As we have in previous rounds, we ran used tyres from our bank in Practice B and I was happy with the way the car was responding to changes Rowdy and the guys made.

The longer session took place after the Historic Touring Car practice and as always seems to happen here the track changes with different cars, rubber and the time of day. We sat in the top three for most of the session but the tyres we used on the car had over 150kms on them.

So it was alll about doing some longer runs and seeing how the car responded. I finished 8th overall however it was from Practice B - so I reckon the car has great potential for Qual and hopefully the Top 10 shootout. It looks like it is going to be hot as well so I am really looking foward to a big run in the Qualifying sesion tomorrow morning.

Hope to see you there!

Cheers

Steve

V8 SUPERCARS
PRACTICE SESSIONS P9 P11

1    18      James Courtney            Ford Falcon FG                      P9 1:10.8146*
2    33      Lee Holdsworth             Holden Commodore VE          P11 1:10.9633   0:00.1487
3     6       Steven Richards          Ford Falcon FG                     P11 1:11.0349 0:00.2203
4    39      Russell Ingall                Holden Commodore VE          P11 1:11.0629 0:00.2483
5     2       Garth Tander                Holden Commodore VE         P11 1:11.2779 0:00.4633
6    22      Will Davison                  Holden Commodore VE         P11 1:11.3073 0:00.4927
7     5       Mark Winterbottom       Ford Falcon FG                    P11 1:11.3330 0:00.5184
8    17      Steven Johnson             Ford Falcon FG                     P9 1:11.3391 0:00.5245
9     9       Shane Van Gisbergen    Ford Falcon FG                     P11 1:11.3530 0:00.5384
10   25      Jason Bright                 Ford Falcon FG                     P11 1:11.3926 0:00.5780

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