Evans storms to 11th for BJR in eventful Darwin race

Jaxon Evans has finished on the cusp of the top ten in Race 12, after a heated race in the Northern Territory for the Brad Jones Racing team.

Evans found his stride on Sunday, driving from 16th to 11th in the 48-lap affair. 

The SCT Logistics driver kept clean amid an eventful race and was able to take the chequered flag within touching distance of the top ten.

Macauley Jones in the #96 Pizza Hut Racing Camaro enjoyed a strong showing, coming through from 22nd all the way to 14th at one stage.

Jones held 14th until those that had stopped later bullied their way past him and relegated him to 17th.

It was especially impressive considering Jones had been involved in an earlier melee on the first lap and had driven his first stint with a flat spotted tyre.

Jones wasn’t the only BJR car to end up tangled in that first lap incident, with Andre Heimgartner going over the top of another car.

Heimgartner was sandwiched between Nick Percat (Matt Stone Racing) and Cooper Murray (Triple Eight) and pushed towards Murray.

The R&J Batteries was catapulted over Murray, however he was able to come to pitlane and receive urgent repairs before continuing on.

However in his drive to pitlane he was deemed to have sped under Safety Car, copping a penalty and effectively ending his opportunity to get back into the race.

Darwin-born driver Bryce Fullwood made it out of the first lap incident unscathed but lucked out in his second stint.

He left the pitlane with a pack of cars who were all on a similar strategy and wasn’t able to make his way through them.

The Middy’s Electrical drive crossed the line just behind Jones in 18th. 

The team now prepares for the Townsvilles 500 next month (5-7).

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Andre Heimgartner
 Supercars driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
"Tough race. Unfortunately being the last one in the chain and you ended up in the sky and took a while to come down. After that the car wasn't actually too bad. I think the setup from then wasn't terrible just one of those things when you start there and it's stuck in everyone's mess. So disappointing overall but will keep on trucking."

Bryce Fullwood
Supercars driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro
"We qualified 14th which I wasn't 100% stoked with. I felt like we didn't quite maximize the car in qualifying and it was really close to being in the Shoot Out, the times were so so close. So yeah, it wasn't too bad. And then the the race I got a really good start. And then unfortunately,  there was a crash involving Andre right in front of me that I sort of lost a lot of spots out of just trying to avoid. And then after that the car speed was pretty good. But just unfortunately, we had a little bit of a slow pitstop. I'm not 100% sure if the strategy was on point, but basically I came out and got jammed up behind another car and just couldn't really go forward. So it was a real shame. I feel like the car speed was really not that bad. It's just we've got a few other areas that that held us up in the race today. So we've got to go back and work out how to control the things that we can control because I feel like the race car wasn't too bad today."

Macauley Jones
Supercars driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
"Average qualifying wasn't really too stoked with that, it's so tight that a little bit means a lot. So didn't have the greatest run there. We need to kind of work on that still. The race was eventful, had a good start got turned around on lap one after all the action and then sort of clawed my way back again. Pit early, which meant I had to hold on to the tyre pretty long, which was a bloody damn eventful ending to the race trying to hold off cars that pit much later. But yeah, still got some bits to work on. "

Jaxon Evans
Supercars driver, #12 SCT Logistics Camaro
"Qualifying this morning we seemed to be a lot closer to the window, which was nice. Positive progress overnight. It's super tight, as we all know in this Championship, so a couple of hundredths would have moved us a fair few spots further up the grid, but it was an improvement on Saturday's starting spot. A lot of carnage going on in that first lap, and managed to survive it. Felt like we had a pretty solid race. Guys did a great job in the pitstop, we went for four tyres and had to pass a couple cars. Unfortunately couldn't quite make the most of it and get past the #26 in front of us for a top 10 finish. If you told us yesterday that we were going to finish P11, on the fringes of the top 10, I would have been pretty happy with it. Big thanks to the team for working hard overnight. Big thanks to the guys and girls of BJR. And let's let's try and continue this momentum in Townsville."