Chaotic opening Melbourne SuperSprint race for BJR

The opening race of the Melbourne SuperSprint netted mixed results for the Brad Jones Racing cars.

All four of the BJR entries were caught in an intense battle that spanned nearly 15 cars, shuffling positions throughout what was an 18 lap race.

Originally scheduled for 19 laps, the Safety Car period took it to a time certain finish.

Andre Heimgartner started the race in 8th, the highest qualifying of the BJR quartet.

The R&J Batteries driver was caught in the biff and barge and shuffled back outside the top ten in the opening battles.

By lap four, Bryce Fullwood, who had caught Heimgartner was looking speedy before a moment caught them both out and they were steam-trained back to 17th/18th.

Macauley Jones in the Pizza Hut Racing Camaro was hit from behind on lap seven by Aaron Cameron.

Bringing about the Safety Car when Cameron was then beached. 

While the field was neutralized Jones was called to pitlane to put on four fresh tyres, re-joining the field in 21st.

After the re-start Heimgartner was 16th, Jaxon Evans in the SCT Motorsport car was 18th, Fullwood followed in 19th.

Heimgartner was able to capitalise in the final stages of the race and came home in 12th.

With the fresh tyres, Jones pulled himself up the grid to then finish the race in 14th. 

The Shure Racing Camaro of Fullwood saw the chequered flag in 15th.

Evans wasn’t far behind in 18th.

Qualifying for Race 5 took place earlier in the day, with Heimgartner putting in a lap good enough for the second row.

The Friday afternoon race (2:50pm AEDT), will see Heimgartner start from fourth, while Jones will be in 16th, Fullwood 20th and Evans 22nd.

SUPERCARS QUOTEBOARD

Andre Heimgartner
Supercars driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro

"It was bit of a battle for us today. Unfortunately, whether it was my driving or it was the set-up, we just didn't quite nail it on the head. Sort of struggling from a few laps in, and then just got bailed a few times by people and then had to decide whether I was going to have a crash or preserve myself, but I think there's some good lessons. Overall, today's been positive, and 12th after that is pretty decent, but we need to work on the race. There's a driving style or a car setup that we're missing, so we will have to look at that overnight and hopefully fix that for tomorrow's race. With starting fourth tomorrow, it was a really good result for everyone and a good turnaround from last year for us, but we will do some homework tonight, figure out what we need in the race car and go from there, but it is really exciting to start further up the grid."

Bryce Fullwood
Supercars driver, #14 Brad Jones Racing Camaro

"Today was a bit hard to take, honestly. We had some very good car speed but just got caught up with everyone else. There was some chaotic racing out there.

"We'll review everything overnight and try again tomorrow."

Macauley Jones
Supercars driver, #96 Pizza Hut Racing Camaro

"That was pretty crazy. It's a really hard track at the moment; very dusty and really easy to make mistakes on the tyre with the overheating, which seems to be one of the topics for the weekend. We did a pit stop in the middle of the race, just to put on slightly better tyre, which was a really good move from Scalzo [Paul Scalzo, Race Engineer], and managed to pick them off and just try and settle in. It was a pretty difficult race and a hard one to mark. We have another race tomorrow, which I think is a bit of a lottery at this point. It’s really hard when you're trying to race hard, but when you get passed by one, you get passed by four, and we kept seeing that happen throughout the whole race, so it’s just about managing it. "

Jaxon Evans
Supercars driver, #12 SCT Motorsport Camaro

"Day one, the busiest day for us, is complete here at the Grand Prix. Not a great day, we struggled a fair bit, aside from the first quali session. Started the race today 14th, which was okay, but there was plenty of carnage out there with people crashing into each other and some average moves, which unfortunately we were on the receiving end of a couple, so we finished the race 18th with a few battle scars. Not an ideal start to the weekend, with missing a little bit of car speed; but starting off the back tomorrow, we'll see how we can tune the cars up overnight and hopefully race forward in Friday's race."