Bathurst 1000 prep wrapped up for BJR
Brad Jones Racing has maximised their two final practice sessions ahead of the 2023 Bathurst 1000.
With all four cars focussed on long runs with higher levels of fuel, the team are quite happy with the outcome of Saturday.
Andre Heimgartner and Dale Wood in the #8 R&J Batteries Camaro shared driver duties across the day.
With the pair finding a happy balance by the second session of the day, finishing eighth on the time sheets.
Pizza Hut Racing drivers Macauley Jones and Jordan Boys were also in a better position over yesterday, finding race pace in the #96 Camaro.
The SCT Logistics drivers had an up and down run and still found that their green tyre was difficult to turn on but still head into the 1000km race with confidence.
Jaxon Evans is pairing Jack Smith in only his second Bathurst 1000, after joining him last year.
The #14 side of the garages however are still chasing speed, Bryce Fullwood and Dean Fiore have struggled slightly all weekend with pace.
The pair are still working with Phil Keed to get the most out of the car in the race tomorrow, where they start from 21st.
The Supercars drivers get a chance to warm up at Mount Panorama tomorrow before the race gets underway at 11:15 AEDT.
Super2
Lochie Dalton moved forward again in the second Super2 race of the weekend at Mount Panorama.
Dalton qualified 11th in class and 12th overall, with the rookie then making up positions in the 18 lap race that ran green for its entirety.
The AWC driver came across the line eighth which claimed him fifth for the round.
Super2 are back in action at the Adelaide 500 (November 23-26).
Supercars results
Practice 5
P12 - Jordan Boys Pizza Hut Camaro
P19 - Jaxon Evans SCT Logistics Camaro
P21 - Dale Wood R&J Batteries Camaro
P27 - Dean Fiore Middy's Electrical Camaro
Practice 6
P8 - Andre Heimgartner/Dale Wood R&J Batteries Camaro
P16 Macauley Jones/Jordan Boys Pizza Hut Camaro
P22 - Bryce Fullwood/Dean Fiore Middy's Electrical Camaro
P23 - Jack Smith/Jaxon Evans SCT Logistics Camaro
Bathurst 1000 starting positions
P13 - Andre Heimgartner/Dale Wood R&J Batteries Camaro
P21 - Bryce Fullwood/Dean Fiore Middy's Electrical Camaro
P24 Macauley Jones/Jordan Boys Pizza Hut Camaro
P27 - Jack Smith/Jaxon Evans SCT Logistics Camaro
Super2 results
Qualifying
P12 - Lochie Dalton AWC ZB Commodore
Race 2
P8 - Lochie Dalton AWC ZB Commodore
Supercars Quoteboard
Andre Heimgartner
Supercars Driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
"Good day had some good progress as far as the race car goes. I think it's going to be good for tomorrow. Excited to get amongst it."
Dale Wood
Supercars Co-Driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
"Definitely been a very different approach to any 1000 that we've done recently. So just understanding how it all looks and the race runs are very different to what we've seen before. So managing tyre degradation and all that is very different to what we've normally had to prep for. But I think in that sense, that isn't too bad for us. I think our race prep and our race runs seem to be quite competitive, so definitely plenty there. Plenty of ingredients there for a good day tomorrow."
Bryce Fullwood
Supercars Driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro
"We've had one more practice and Dean's had another practice. We're feeling more comfortable in the car. Just continuing to work on race running stuff and looking at making some changes again before tomorrow we're not 100% happy with our car. Still chipping away at it."
Dean Fiore
Supercars Co-Driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro
"It's a genuine struggle for us at the moment to find any real car speed. So we're just focused on trying to find that so we've got a decent race car, because if we don't find something overnight, it's gonna be a long day tomorrow. So focusing on just keeping it clean, and hopefully get some of that car speed. I'm confident we can because Phil Keed our engineer is very good at this. He's forgotten more than I'll ever know about Bathurst and how to prepare for it. We'll do something overnight and it'll be right to go to go tomorrow."
Jack Smith
Supercars Driver, #4 SCT Logistics Camaro
" Saturday first started off quite well in the co-driver session for Jaxon. Race pace was good and made some improvements to the car. Unfortunately in second practice, we took a couple of steps backwards and it's kind of struggling with overall speed again, so we've just got to work out what went wrong there and fix it for tomorrow."
Jaxon Evans
Supercars Co-Driver, #4 SCT Logistics Camaro
"Today was better than yesterday. We made some forward progress with our race car, which is the important thing going into tomorrow. Starting to feel a bit more comfortable in the car myself. Still some fine tuning to do before tomorrow, but, hopefully we have a pretty strong package over the race distance and see where we end up."
Macauley Jones
Supercars Driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
"Better car today, we're preparing for the race. I feel like we made some good progress. Hopefully the thing holds on to it's tyres and we go absolutely lit speed."
Jordan Boys
Supercars Co-Driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
"Today was good. We got to do some race car stuff which is really more of our strength this weekend. Both Macca and I are actually pretty happy with what we got. So, way more positive we're really keen and think we'll have a good day tomorrow"
Super2 Quoteboard
Lochie Dalton
Super2 driver, #43 AWC ZB Commodore
"Quali was a bit disappointing. Still struggling to turn the car on and I didn't quite get the most out of it either. A bit to tune up around me and the car. The race was not too bad. It's a bit frustrating, as usual we had a really good race car. We just sort of got stuck in a slower car's dirty air and cooked the fronts but come home in P8 and fifth round, which is sort of good."