BJR unlucky in Race 5, podium chance gives hope

Brad Jones Racing was hit with a stroke of bad luck throughout the fifth race of the 2023 Supercars Championship at the Melbourne SuperSprint.

The four BJR Camaros had shown promising speed earlier in the day in qualifying for this evening’s race and tomorrow’s Race 6, with Bryce Fullwood (#14 Middy’s Electrical Camaro) being the third fastest driver in the session setting the grid for Race 5.

Fullwood’s pace carried over to the race where he contended for a podium, on the road he finished in third, however a decision just moments later to award the team with a penalty for an unsafe pitstop stripped him of that spot.

The 15 second penalty demoted Fullwood to 12th, however Fullwood remains upbeat with the on the road result showing what the team could achieve. 

Andre Heimgartner in the R&J Batteries Camaro then led the BJR fleet in Race 5, finishing in fifth position. 

Macauley Jones was caught in an unfortunate tangle on the first lap, being pushed into another car and damaging the #96 Pizza Hut Camaro.

Jones was forced from the race at that point and the team will now rush to fix the damaged Camaro for tomorrow’s race.

Jack Smith (#4 SCT Logistics) had pace and was dicing with those in front of him throughout the shortened race, however lost out and finished 18th. 

Race 6 kicks off tomorrow at 10:25 AEST, with the four BJR cars in the position to capitalise on their current speed. 

What our drivers had to say…

Andre Heimgartner
Supercars Driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
"The race for us, I was in the middle of a whole lot of action but managed to come out of it relatively unscathed had a bit of bent steering after being sandwhiched but overall, pretty happy. Happy for the team with two cars right up there."


Bryce Fullwood
Supercars Driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro

"What a race. Really happy with our qualifying earlier this morning. I just wanted to be able to run up there, as it’s one thing getting there in wet up and down conditions but being able to run there was a different challenge. And so the goal for the race was to come out with the top 10. And honestly, we were fast and we deserve to be there. When Will pitted actually started catching Brody and pulling away from Will Davison. And so we actually had quite good speed in that race. It's a bit unfortunate in the pits but we win and lose as a team. That move could have been in the  move for a trophy or it could have we could have been safe and not gone for it. So you know, there's going to be more of these moments so I'd rather send it to see if we get a trophy and so yeah, really, really happy. Like, I feel like we earnt that trophy today and it won't define our day."

Jack Smith
Supercars Driver, #14 SCT Logistics Camaro
“Qualifying was good for us, the car had pace and we came away with a decent result. We still want to be ahead but it was forward movement. The car was good in the race, I was able to battle with a few others and it was quite racey. It was just unfortunate not to be able to get a result with that one.” 

Macauley Jones
Supercars Driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
“It was really unfortunate to get caught in that accident on the first lap. We had the pace, the car was really quick and we just weren’t given the opportunity to show it today. The team has a big job ahead of them now to turn it around for tomorrow’s race. We start out of the same position tomorrow so hopefully we’ll be able to get ahead.”