JOHNSTON CRAILL RACING ENTERPRISES will return to competition this weekend, locking in an on-track return in the penultimate round of the Battery World Aussie Racing Cars series at Phillip Island.

It’s a comeback six months in the making following an unscheduled second complete rebuild thanks to moments unfortunately outside of the team’s control.

The return comes following a lengthy process to regroup following a challenging introduction to the category that saw the team’s #8 Check it out Graphics / theracetorque.com Mustang first blow an engine and then be crashed into by another competitor – caught out on the oil – at Wanneroo Raceway in April this year.

The lengthy repair saw the car require a ground-up rebuild including much of the rear chassis’ frame, differential, rear suspension, dampers, axles, bodywork and other ancillary components.

After delays receiving key components hindered plans to tackle Tasmania, the team completed an initial shakedown at Mallala in early August that was cut short by an oil leak and a small fire – quickly dealt with by the circuit safety team – from a freshly serviced engine.

That required another regroup however a more recent shakedown at Mallala last week was a success, with the car running strongly and without any major issue.

JCRE enlisted the support of Aussie Racing Cars champion Joel Heinrich to assist in shaking down the car – the king of the class setting strong lap times that helped validate both the success of the rebuild mission and the potential in the car from a performance point of view.  

Indeed, the support from Joel and Bruce Heinrich has been key to returning the JCRE rocket to the circuit in time for the Phillip Island event.

With that job complete attention now turns to the newly-resurfaced Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, where the Aussie Racing Cars series will compete alongside the Australian Superbike Championship this weekend.

Though he hasn’t raced there in some time, the Island is a happy hunting ground for Johnston who has tasted success there in the past in Formula Vee, Formula Ford and Hyundai Excel competition.

The fresh surface, which has seen lap records smashed by every category racing there this year, will help even the playing field this weekend – more important than ever given the event commences with qualifying on Saturday morning.

JCRE is also pleased to announce that Action Line Marking has joined the team’s group of supporters for the remainder of the 2024 season.

Action are a fantastic South Aussie business and have had a long relationship with both Check it Out Graphics and Aussie Racing Cars, through the backing of fellow racer Scott Dornan and also the Heinrich team.

ASHER JOHNSTON;

“We knew this Aussie Racing car thing would be a challenge, but we didn’t quite expect to have this much thrown at us in such a short space of time.

“Still, the upsides outweigh the negatives and the car is clearly fast and the rebuild has allowed us to fix things that we hadn’t got to after we picked it up late last year.

“So we’re in a better position even though having those issues thrown our way at the test day was incredibly frustrating.

“We’re excited to get to Phillip Island next month. It’s a track I know extremely well from my Formula Vee, Formula Ford and Excel days so we’ll be able to hit the ground running which will be important given there’s no practice, it’s straight in qualifying.

“The new surface will help level the playing field, which is handy for us. Everyone has worked so hard to get us back on track so we’re looking for a clean, consistent weekend where we can finally get in the pack and do some racing. Bathurst, which is the last time we actually got to race, feels like a very long time ago.”