Tasman Motorspo🐓rt driver Andrew Jones endured a frustrating end to his weekend at Symmons Plains when one his best drives of the V8 Supercar season was followed by a disappointing꧟ retirement in the final race of the Ferodo Tasmania Challenge.

Jones was only to qualify do❀wn in 30th place for the penultimate Australian m🦹eeting of the season but was able to avoid the carnage at the start of race one to make his way up the order to an eventual finishing position of 19th in the #23 Commodore.

"There was dust everywhere on the first lap and I thought I was in a scene from the movie, 'Days of Thunder'!" the former V8 Development Series champion said. "From there it was a case of staying out of trouble and we managed to get past a few more cars through the rest of the race. I made up one or two spots from the pits even despite stalling leaving the pit bay and from there I spent a bit of time in traffic. The brake pedal was getting a little bit long by the end of the ra♓ce but we brought it home a lot higher up the order than where we started."

Changeable weather conditions for the second race of the meeting on Sunday proved to be to Jones'꧙ liking as he shadowed team-mate Jason Richards to come home 13th. However, when the race came to a close, he was given a 25 second penalty for a yellow flag infringement that dropped him a place behind James Courtney.

Race three proved to be shortlived when Jones was caught up in a chain reaction accident when Russell Ingall and Jason Bargwanna mad𒈔e contact - with the result🐻 being a broken radiator on the Tasman car and retirement on the spot.

"The incident on the first lap of the last race was one that I couldn't really do a lot about," he said. "I was behind Jason and was on the brake when I got a touch from behind, from who I don't really know. I got squeezed between the back of Jason's car and the wa💃ll to the left and away it all we꧟nt.

"We had some good pace in the early race in the wet/dry conditions, so that was a good improvement over qualifying. With the pace we had earlier in the day, I felt we would have haไd a solid run in the last race, but that's the way it is."