Billy Johnson and the Multimatic Motorsports team began the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge with two big podium finishes, winning the season-opener at Daytona and taking second place as the 12 Hours of Sebring. Unfortunately, that podium streak came to an end this past weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, where the pair of Shelby GT350R-C Mustangs finished in fourth and sixth place.

Johnson and co-driver Scott Maxwell were in good shape in second place before a final full-course yellow, having enough fuel and tires to finish the race and knowing the rest of the field would need one last stop if the race finished under green.

“The Ford Performance Multimatic team did an excellent job with pit strategy and we had the best pit strategy out there,” says Johnson, who brought the No. 15 home in fourth place. “If we hadn’t had that last caution, we would’ve been an excellent position for a podium or at least contested for it, based on our gap and how quickly they were catching us. It was going to be close. It was going to be a good race. Unfortunately, we got the yellow and we were just going to be a sitting duck.

The No. 76 Ford Shelby GT350R-C of Compass360 finished in sixth after leading laps as well.

“In hindsight, I think we’re just fighting an uphill battle here and that’s as good as we’re going to do,” Maxwell adds. “The car was good. The crew did great stops. Our strategy was spot-on. We took a chance early and got off strategy with everyone else, hoping for a green until then end, because we didn’t need to pit again. When we got the yellow, we lost that advantage. Every decision we made on strategy was the right one. It’s frustrating, but we get points. The team did great. The car was great. We couldn’t have done anything different. It’s not like we’re walking away saying ‘we should’ve done this.’ We did all we could.”