Novocastrian driver Aaren Russell has capped off his third and final Supercars start for 2018 with a qualifying win and strong main-race showing at the rain-affected Gold Coast 600 on the weekend.
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The 27-year-old Woodrising resident was third when Sunday’s 102-lap event was abandoned at 5:25pm (ADST) because of safety concerns from storms.
Nissan’s Russell and Andre Heimgartner were 19th in Saturday’s race, but on Friday he set the fastest time in co-driver practice.
Inside the last 90 seconds of the session, Russell stopped the clock at one minute and 11.1204 seconds to go three tenths clear at the top of the leaderboard.
“It wasn’t an easy session, we had a brake drama midway through, the pedal went to the floor at turn 1 which was a bit scary,” Russell told Supercars media.
“But the team did an awesome job and it just feels good to drive an awesome car around here. The car was hooked up and I felt comfortable in it.
“The tyres were quite good, they weren’t green, I think Andre had done a couple of runs on them, so they were alright, but they were probably the best I’ve driven on for a while. The old co-driver life, you don’t get too many good tyres, so you have to make the most of your opportunities.”
Meanwhile, Jamie Whincup has conceded his Supercars Championship defence is over after a horror Gold Coast 600 weekend. He is 433 points behind leader Scott McLaughlin (3368), who is just ahead of Shane van Gisbergen (3354) with only races in Auckland and Newcastle remaining.