Best Result for Moff in Nissan

James Moffat recorded his best finish in a Nissan at the Chill Perth 360 on Sunday, finishing eighth in Championship Race 12.

The Norton 360 Racing driver wassurprised to have achieved the feat at Barbagallo Raceway, but felt his Altima wasstrong and was positive about the rest of the season.

“It was a really solid weekend for us –particularly in that last race going from 20th to eighth,” Moffat said afterSunday’s race. “The car was very good all weekend in the races…

“This is by far the best result I’ve hadhere at Barbagallo, it’s one of – if not the – hardest place in thecountry on tyres. So it shows that our car is working well and looking afterit’s tyres and we were able to pick off a few cars at the end there.

“I had a good battle with GT (GarthTander) in both races and to be racing a former series Champion and driver ofhis caliber is good and it was hard, clean racing.”

The #360 Altima was in the top 10 in allthree of the weekend’s races, though the last race was Moffat’s best result. He currently sits 13th in the Championship points. Race 12 was his fifth top 10 finish of the season. 

“It’s obviously always important to runwell and anytime you’re in the top 10 in this Championship, with howcompetitive it is these days you’re doing a reasonable job.

“Given that we’re so early still indevelopment with these brand new Nissan Altimas, I think it’s full credit tothe team and (the result) gives us more motivation to go back to the factoryand work even harder.”

Moffat said the team knew where theweaknesses were and was working as efficiently as possible to improve.

The mainissue with the car? “It sort of sits between the headlightsand the windscreen – that’s as diplomatic as I can be at the moment,” he said.

“We’ve been struggling with it all year –we know that. It’s nothing against the team or the engine shop guys or anythinglike that, they’ve been trying as hard as they can.

“We’ll find it in time and when we do Ithink we might surprise a few people… I think we can be a bit of a threatfurther up the front of the field, which would be nice, but I don’t want tocount our chickens before they hatch.”

Everyone in the field seems to be excitedabout the opportunity to race in Texas – the next event on theChampionship calendar, the Austin 400 at Circuit of the Americas runs from May17-19 – and Moffat is no different.

“As far as going to Texas, I’m just excitedheading over there,” he said. “It’s going to be great to race in front of theAmericans and we'll try and put on some good racing – show them someracing other than just going around on ovals! I think it’ll be great over thereand I’m really looking forward to heading over.”