BJR focused on making gains at Melbourne SuperSprint
Brad Jones Racing is preparing for a new challenge at the second round of the Repco Supercars Championship at the Beaurepaires Melbourne SuperSprint (March 30-April 2) racing alongside Formula 1.
The four short, sharp sprint races on the well-manicured Albert Park street circuit are a new ballgame compared to the epic 250km races on the bumpy Newcastle track, however BJR is focused on continuing its momentum from the previous round.
With multiple compounds being used over the event, in a key difference to Newcastle there are questions surrounding tyre life, which the team will have to adapt to quite quickly to be able to capitalise on.
All four of the BJR drivers, Andre Heimgartner (R&J Batteries #8), Bryce Fullwood (Middy’s Electrical #14), Macauley Jones (Pizza Hut #96) and Jack Smith (SCT Logistics #4), made gains over the Newcastle weekend both with speed and in terms of understanding the Chevrolet Camaros.
With Fullwood’s drive from 18th to 11th a standout performance in Race 2 and Heimgartner’s equal fourth spot in the championship standings providing confidence heading to Melbourne.
It was a mix of fortunes at last year’s Albert Park round with Heimgartner’s weekend not going to plan while team-mate Jones equalled his best result to date in the first race (6th) but the team believes that the knowledge they have taken from previous running that they can perform across the board this year.
Supercars are on track from Thursday March 30 with two practice sessions, two qualifying sessions and a race.
What our team has to say…
Brad Jones
“I'm looking forward to the AGP. It's going to be our first mixed tyre event and last year it was certainly something that made the racing interesting. I think the Super Soft tyre is going to be quite a tricky tyre to run if the wear is anything like it was last year. That's something we're going to have to be on top of right from the start. I'm looking forward to the different format and also running the cars somewhere where it's flat and fast. Hopefully we're going to be up towards the front again, and I felt like we've had a pretty strong start to the championship with #8 and #14 hopefully they can carry that forward and I feel like for #96 in and #4, this is an opportunity for them to move up.”
Bryce Fullwood
“We obviously had a full weekend of learning on this car at Newcastle. We just weren’t able to do a whole lot with it. And now I understand a little bit more of what it needs to go fast. So I feel like I have a much better understanding of what it wants, going into this weekend and am quite hopeful we can make gains with that.”
Andre Heimgartner
“We're confident after Newcastle, we showed some decent speed and came away with equal fourth in the championship. There were a few areas we can improve on and we've looked at them over the break. AGP was a bad round for us last year but we'll see if we can turn that around and have a good one.”
Jack Smith
“At the last round we made improvements over the weekend and while we’re probably a bit off where we’d like to be, we did make some tweaks that brought the car forward for me. This round I’m hoping to continue that momentum.”
Macauley Jones
“Newcastle had a few ups and downs, I’m still adapting to these cars and our crew are still learning how to optomise them. However I can take a few positives heading into AGP. Working with Donners [Andrew Donnelly] is really good, it’s his first time as a race engineer and we have a great relationship. We’ll be looking to make gains this weekend, AGP was a strong round for me last year.”