Nissan double stack due to Moffat puncture

A mid-race puncture for James Moffat's Nissan Altima dealt a double blow to Nissan Motorsport yesterday, with Moffat and teammate Michael Caruso compromised, after the #23 was forced to double stack as the team completed an unscheduled pit stop.

Footage showed both Altimas in pit lane mid-race in green conditions, losing valuable time during the Tyrepower Tasmania SuperSprint's 200km race.

Both dropped down the order, with Caruso racking up extra timein pit lane, and Moffat having to revert to the hard tyre compound after losing one of his soft Dunlop tyres.

"We were battling away out there and when I got the puncture it happened at turn six, so I came straight in," Moffat said.

"That was on our set of soft tyres, so immediately our race was over and of course we compromised Caruso's race as well because he had to double stack behind us.

"Not good, but sometimes these things happen."

Caruso -who ran additional branding over the weekend for GT Academy -was surprised to find himself stacking when taking his scheduled pit stop.

"It's disappointing because the car was actually very good on soft tyres," Caruso said.

"I don't know the breakdown of what actually happened out there. We double stacked at the second pit stop behind 'Moff' and from what the crew said Moff had a puncture.

"It will be good to have a look back at that but we have to move on and look forward to WA."

Todd Kelly was the highest placed Nissan yesterday, home in 13th, while Caruso finished 19th and Moffat 23rd.

Kelly said the squad expected mid-pack results at the event, but felt he could've done a little more on Sunday. He believed the second half of the season would play more to the Nissans' strengths.

"It was always going to be a reasonably tough round for us so we came here expecting this," he said.

"To be fair I probably should have qualified a little further up in that last race there. We were genuinely around 10th to 12th (fastest) but I didn't get the best out of it and didn't get a good lap where I strung the whole thingtogether. I had a fair bit of traffic in qualifying.

"So to finish 13th is good but we probably should have been nudging on the back of a top 10 there. So a few spots off the optimum, but it certainly could have been worse.

"If we get the next couple of tracks out of the way and survive those then we should have a pretty solid second half of the year and we're in a pretty solid position."

Rick Kelly -who was 14th in the Jack Daniel's Altima-remains the highest placed in the Championship in eighth position.