Moffat's Winton warning

A realistic James Moffat is not willing to predict a repeat of his 2013 triumph as Nissan Motorsport regroups from a bruising Tyrepower Tasmania 400 and prepares to go straight back into action along with the rest of the V8 Supercars field at the Winton 400 this weekend.

Moffat couldn’t crack the top 10 in qualifying or a race at the short and fast Symmons Plains circuit in his Norton Hornet Nissan Altima, while all four Nissans ran at the tail of the field and were lapped in last Sunday’s 200km Race Six. 

As a result Moffat slumped from 10th to 16th in the Championship pointscore, his teammate Michael Caruso from 11th to 16th, Jack Daniel’s Nissan driver Rick Kelly fell from fourth to 11th and his brother and teammate Todd, from 20th to 23rd.

Despite improvements to the aerodynamics of the Nissan for its second season, the Altima struggled for straight line speed at Symmons Plains, reflecting the development work the VK56DE V8 engine still needs. 

“There is no doubt we went in there knowing Symmons was going to be a challenging event for us,” admitted Moffat. “But after Clipsal and the Grand Prix we thought we might run a bit more competitively than what we did.

“But as things panned out on Sunday … it’s fair to say we had our pants pulled down. It’s a bit of kick in the guts to be honest, but I guess the good thing is we have this weekend to turn that around as a team and prove to people that is not where we should be running.”

The good news is that top speed isn’t relevant at the tight Winton track, where Moffat broke through for his and Nissan’s first – and so far only – win in the V8 Supercars Championship, leading home Caruso in a Norton Nissan 1-2.

However, because the team has yet to test at Winton with its new lower downforce aerodynamic set-up, which offers reduced grip, Moffat is unsure of just how quick the Altima will be. 

“There is in my opinion possibly a small question mark on us heading to Winton this year, just because we haven’t been there with this car with this aero package,” he said. “The last time we tested there was the week before the race meeting and that obviously paid off for us with the results we had.

“We as a group need to hit the ground running this Friday, especially now with the revised practice sessions, because those 20 minutes sessions are over before you know it.”

Despite his caution, Moffat has posted consistently good results at Winton apart from his win, including a top 10 with Dick Johnson Racing in 2011 and a top five in 2012. 

“I always seem to run reasonably well there and it is going to be good to go back there, but we have a big job ahead of us to even go close to repeating what we did last year,” Moffat said.

Moffat’s win last August came with some controversy as he and teammate Michael Caruso (and Maro Engel’s Erebus Mercedes-Benz AMG E63) were running a revised ethanol blend for that race as V8 Supercars experimented with different ways to achieve fuel consumption parity.

Red Bull Racing’s Jamie Whincup labelled it “jungle juice” and claimed it boosted power, while the questions over its performance pros and cons dominated post-race debate, including the winner’s press conference.

“I certainly remember that aspect of it, but you learn pretty quickly in this business to develop a hard skin or you are not going to go too far,” Moffat said. “I didn’t really let it affect me, I was more disappointed for the team, all the guys who put in all their hard work up to that point of the year, having to hear comments like that.

“I guess there were certain media people and certain identities in pitlane trying to take the victory away from us … and to this day I say every team owner signed off on the fuel before the weekend. They all knew there was nothing in it.”

The Winton 400 will be the second consecutive event run under the new Super Sprint format, with two 100km races on Saturday and a single 200km mini-marathon on Sunday. Fuel consumption has been negated as an issue in the longer race because of the ‘Minimum Drop’ rule introduced by V8 Supercars in 2014. 

The Winton 400 begins on Friday.