JETT Johnson’s first event in Supercars competition has hit a hurdle through no fault of his own, involved in an unfortunate multi-car practice crash.
An unsighted Johnson speared into the driver’s side door of Matt Chahda’s ZB Commodore after the latter crashed at Turn 9 on the Newcastle street circuit.
Johnson’s Altima was then hit by the Petronas Mustang of Aaron Love, with sprintcar convert Callum Walker taking evasive action to prevent it becoming a four-car tangle.
The incident occurred with roughly nine minutes remaining in Practice 2, triggering red flags that would ultimately end the session.
Anderson Motorsport’s Zak Best had shot to the top of the leaderboard moments before the red flags came out, nailing a 1:12.8900s lap to knock off Super2 debutant Kai Allen by 0.1711s.
Brad Vaughan, Jay Robotham and Zach Bates rounded out the top five, while Matt McCutcheon was the highest-placed Super3 driver in outright 18th.
Johnson was fourth in class aboard his NAPA Auto Parts Nissan Altima, which now requires repairs.
“It’s not pleasant,” said Jett’s father Steven.
“We just really wanted to do both practice sessions today and get experience and everything.
“He has just gone around the corner there and I’m not sure who it was in front of him has obviously made a mistake and gone into the wall.
“He was unsighted and got there and there’s a car in the middle of the road.
“He was on the radio, he’s okay, but we’ve got a little bit of a fix to do now.”
Best and Allen had also run one-two in Practice 1, a quarter of a second the margin on that occasion.
Besides the Turn 9 incident, there were awkward moments for several other drivers during practice.
Aaron Seton was the first to come unstuck, crashing at Turn 6 in the morning session.
Mason Kelly tagged the Turn 12 wall with the left-rear of his #22 Altima early in Practice 2, before Elly Morrow and Chris Smerdon collided at the same corner but escaped any major damage.
