Nissan Motorsport has endured a tough first 300km during the opening race of the Gold Coast 600 at Surfers Paradise today.
The Industrial Athlete-backed Nissan of Michael Caruso offered the team’s highlight, provisionally qualifying eighth before moving up to sixth in the Top 10 Shoot-out.
However, the #23 car’s chances of a strong result were dashed early with an ECU problem during Dean Fiore’s first stint in the car. Fiore and Caruso would eventually finish 23rd.
The Castrol Nissan of Rick Kelly and Garry Jacobson emerged as the best placed Nissan for the majority of the race and had a chance of scoring a top 10 result, only for a front left steering arm to fail with a handful of laps remaining. A quick fix by the team ensured Kelly crossed the line in 22nd place.
The Harvey Norman Nissan of Simona De Silvestro completed the race as the top Nissan in 18th, however, their final position was compromised by a slow pit stop during the driver change with team-mate Alex Rullo, who fought through his stint with no helmet fan.
Andre Heimgartner and Aaren Russell, driving the #7 Plus Fitness Nissan, were competitive, but were hampered by an open passengers side door, forcing an extra pit stop. The pair tuned their car through the race and are confident of a stronger showing on the famous street circuit tomorrow.
Tomorrow’s track action kicks off with qualifying at 10:20am, the Top 10 Shoot-out at 11:40am and Race 27 of the Supercars Championship at 2:25pm AEST.
DRIVER QUOTES #78 TEAM HARVEY NORMAN SIMONA DE SILVESTRO : « We had a long pit stop at the end which set us back a few positions, and we had some issues with the cool box so we lost some time there too, » said Simona De Silvestro. « It’s so hard to pass here so we were stuck at the end there. Tomorrow is a new day so we’ll keep working at it and improve the car for tomorrow. »
ALEX RULLO « I got a pretty good start and we managed to pick a few spots there, » said Alex Rullo. « Just after the first stop I had my helmet fan go so it got very hot and we lost some speed because of that so I just brought it home for Simona without a scratch. « We were delayed in our stop so that dropped us a couple of positions but Simona did well to come home with a straight car. »
#7 PLUS FITNESS RACING ANDRE HEIMGARTNER : « It’s not the kind of day we wanted, that was for sure, » said Andre Heimgartner. « Obviously we had to come in for the door and then had to double stack. It wasn’t ideal but on the plus side we had a fast car so we’ll have a look at it all tonight and press on for tomorrow. »
AARON RUSSELL : « It was a tough race, » said Aaren Russell. « The car wasn’t quite good in the early part of the race for me, and slowly throughout each stint we continued to tune the car. By the time Andre jumped in we had something we could fight with but it was too late by that stage. I brushed the wall a few times at turn one and we already had a hit on that side from qualifying, so ultimately the door opened up and I had to come in. That wrecked what was going to be a good back half of the race as the car was quick at the end. »
#15 CASTROL RACING RICK KELLY : « We didn’t have ideal track position out there today, which is extremely critical around here, » said Rick Kelly. « Garry did a good job and the car was solid so we just tried to maintain our position as best as we could and get to the end so we could tune it up and have a good go tomorrow. Unfortunately we had a left-front steering arm failure which was a scary moment but we had to come in and fix that so we finished towards the back. I’m pretty disappointed to have something like that happen so close to the end. It’s good to get the first day of racing out of the way, we know what car we have under us in the race so we’ll tune it up for tomorrow and try for a better result. »
GARRY JACOBSON : « If you look at it from a team perspective it certainly wasn’t the result we were capable of today, » said Garry Jacobson. « In terms of my co driver pace it’s progressed above and beyond from yesterday. I got into a rhythm after the first couple of laps and got back to where my pace truly was for us from the last two rounds. With what happened with the steering arm was really unfortunate for the team and I feel for them. I feel like now that Rick and I have have matched our pace of where we truly should be we’ll head into tomorrow with a lot of promise and see how we go. »
#23 INDUSTRIAL ATHLETE MICHAEL CARUSO : « I’m not sure what to make of what’s going on at the moment, it’s a problem that’s continued from Bathurst and it something we haven’t be able to get on top of, » said Michael Caruso. « The team thought they had progressed with the issue but clearly we’ve still got a bit of work to do we’ll hope for a better day tomorrow. The positive was the qualifying speed, and I feel there’s even more gains to be made there. »
DEAN FIORE : « The start wasn’t ideal so we’ll have a good look at that and see exactly what happened and fix that for tomorrow, » said Dean Fiore. « Otherwise our pace was good as we pulled away from the cars behind us and stayed with the cars in front before the ECU drama. That, unfortunately, was our day done from there. »
Press release Nissan Motorsport
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