BJR adds to podium tally in Townsville

Sunday in Townsville has ended in celebrations for the Brad Jones Racing Team as Andre Heimgartner again climbs onto the podium in third in the Repco Supercars Championship.

Heimgartner in the #8 R&J Batteries Camaro led the BJR squad throughout action on Sunday, with a brave call from his team in qualifying to withhold from a third run.

It served the Kiwi well, who earnt a Top Ten Shootout berth, while the Shootout didn’t necessarily provide the opportunity the crew hoped for, Heimgartner went on to start eighth.

It was smart strategy, which was partially influenced by a Safety Car just before the mid-part of the race, that gave Heimgartner the chance to fight for podium positions.

He made his way past Broc Feeney for second and was looking quite safe until a charging Brodie Kostecki rounded him up with his tyres fading fast.

Heimgartner came home to the delight of the team in third.

Across the garage Middy’s Electrical's Bryce Fullwood also enjoyed a strong outing, running as high as sixth in his final stint.

His tyres in the final part of Race 17 also hampered his chances and Fullwood had to settle for ninth.

The results mean that the 8/14 team kept third in the Teams’ Championship and extended the gap to fourth. 

SCT Motorsports’ Jack Smith had incredible pace in the race, his car had a whole lot of potential and Smith was able to avoid a lot of the carnage to finish in 14th.

Macauley Jones received a 15s penalty for contact with another car which hurt his race, he initially crossed the line in 16th but with the penalty records a 20th. 

Brad Jones Racing will be in action again later this month at the Sydney SuperNight (July 28-30).

Super2
Lochie Dalton finished 12th in the Super2 race after a qualifying session where the car wasn’t to his liking.

The BJR Super2 team were able to get that in a better place for him in the afternoon’s race but unfortunately due to circumstances in the race and a small error Dalton wasn’t able to capitalise on it.

Super2 will join Supercars again at Sandown in Melbourne, 15-17 September. 
 

What our drivers had to say…

Andre Heimgartner
Supercars Driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
"I think it was pretty solid. We obviously moved forward. We had good race pace, just couldn't qualify yesterday, qualified 17th. We made some adjustments overnight and it was quite good, some things are starting to line up. Now team obviously did a great job as well with a top 10 in both races. So we're working really well together and  there's been good progress. Same thing happened in Darwin. So I'm really excited about where we are at the moment."

Bryce Fullwood
Supercars Driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro
"Good day for us again today we didn't quite maximize qualifying, I think the potential was pretty similar to where Andre was but we just didn't quite stick it in the last sector unfortunately. But I think still a lot of positives to take away from that and then starting 15th. We come up to ninth in the race so I feel like the first and second stint was really speedy and then the last time we certainly lost a bit of pace so we've got a little bit of homework and work out why. Because that happened yesterday to us as well so I think had that not have happened we would have been a good couple of spots up further again but I'm still really happy to go forward six spots and it's great momentum with the team at the moment. Andre got a trophy, two top 10s for me and I really looking forward to going on into Sydney."

Jack Smith
Supercars Driver, #14 SCT Logistics Camaro
"Overall was a better day we still battled in qualifying, which is frustrating but we're gonna get to the bottom of that. Race pace was really good, passed a lot of cars and strategy was really good so made up 10 spots to 14 which was a nice result. And yeah, overall happy with the gains we made in the race."

Macauley Jones
Supercars Driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
"Qualifying wasn't too bad, it was very tight. Findin that making little changes makes a big difference at the moment. And trying to piece all that together is pretty challenging. So that was okay. Always potential to go a little bit better but you know keep chipping away at that phase and that's for the race. It's really struggle with tyre life. It's pretty chaotic there at the start.  I felt we were pretty weak in tyre life and so that sort of hurt us over the long run, and then covering a penalty, which wasn't ideal, obviously, which was Reynolds, so that was a bit of a awkward one. Just need to work on the tyre life for these sort of longer races."

Lochie Dalton
Super2 driver
“We had a poor qualifying session and couldn’t get the car in the window, our race car was much better but unfortunately with a mistake by myself and an oil down late in the race we couldn‘t do much. Press on to Sandown.”