Stokes Skis Australia Mitsubishi Evo IX drivers Jason Miller and Aaron Tebb have suffered a cruel end to yesterday’s 300km “Fight in the Night” Australian Production Car Series endurance race at Queensland Raceway, retiring with a brake failure just three laps from the end.
After qualifying 11th, a strong start from Miller elevated the Evo to eighth place, a position he held until pitting under Safety Car conditions for a splash of fuel on lap 20.
“Our plan was always to stop for a top-up of fuel if there was a Safety Car at an opportune time, because we didn’t have the fuel range to make it home on only one stop,” Miller said.
Miller resumed the race and continued until lap 58, when another Safety Car prompted the team’s second and final pit stop, with Tebb taking the wheel.
With the pit stop cycle complete, Tebb emerged in second place outright. While he was soon overtaken by the faster BMWs of Beric Lynton/Tim Leahey and Grant/Iain Sherrin, he held onto fourth place before a brake failure forced the car into retirement with just three laps remaining.
“The strategy worked perfectly for us, the Safety Cars could hardly have been timed better,” Miller said.
“We actually jumped the BMWs on strategy, and although we didn’t have the pace to keep them behind us, we still would have finished fourth, which would have been an excellent result against the much newer machinery.
“The brake failure was therefore extremely disappointing, but at least we know Aaron and I are extracting the maximum performance from the car, and we have a team capable of making the right strategic decisions.
“We think we’ve resolved the brake problem, so we’ll do our best to bounce back this afternoon.”
The second 300km production car race commences at 1:20 this afternoon.
