Weekend of promise for Shell Helix duo.

Shell Helix Racing is leaving the Western Australian round of the V8 Supercar Championship satisfied that it is heading in the right direction.

The team made significant in roads during its recent test day and these were seen in Perth this weekend.

Steve Johnson finished 11th overall after finishing ninth in Sunday morning's race and 11th in the day's final race and Warren Luff's early weekend form showed that the improvement shown by the team was not on the back of one driver.

Despite just missing out on a round top ten placing Johnson was upbeat.

"If you forget about individual performance this weekend Shell Helix Racing as a team have been right up there," Steve Johnson said. "I was in the top six in both practice sessions and even Luffy was consistently in the top fifteen.

"This was the first time both of us have been in the top fifteen early in a championship round. It's all very positive, not to mention exciting."

Johnson believes that with the improvements already made coupled with a two-day test next week the Queensland V8 round in three weeks time was looking good.

"If I had to mention three areas that I think we've improved upon since Darwin I would say speed, power down and consistency," Johnson said.

"We were faster this weekend in Perth. Rather than hanging there for a little while and then falling back we were able to attack more which is what you want to do, it's no good purely defending your position.

"Power down and rear mid-corner grip is also better, it's allowing us to position ourselves better to overtake in corners.

"But I think the best part of this weekend was our consistent times, we are putting together blocks of fast laps as opposed to the odd one or two and we are doing these at the end of the race.

"You want to be fast at the start (of a race) but maintain this towards the end, a true and strong racecar is still fast at the end of the race. We have certainly shown a lot of promise and I think that this will continue."

Luff echoed his team mates enthusiasm for the future.

"I, like Steve, was disappointed at our qualifying session because it didn't back-up our practice performance, but we showed in all three races that we weren't going to be easy beats," Warren Luff said.

"We had good pit strategy that elevated the team and there weren't many drivers overtaking us. I also noticed that the gaps separating us from the drivers behind us weren't closing while we were able to reduce the gap of those in front of us most of the time.

"For me the major disappointment was putting it in the sand in the second race. I was touched up a bit and couldn't keep the Ford on the track.

"With the front air duct full of sand and a hole in the radiator unfortunately it overheated the engine and I had to retire. This was frustrating.

"But like Steve (Johnson) said, we'll put this behind us and look forward to what I am sure will be a stronger future."