Exhilarating Race 13 in Darwin nets a top five result for BJR

The first Gen3 race in the Northern Territory has thrown nearly everything at the Repco Supercars Championship drivers, including the Brad Jones Racing squad.

Darwin local Bryce Fullwood heroically fought for a podium in the Repco Supercars Championship’s Race 13, falling just short in the final laps.

The Middy’s Electrical driver started from 6th on the grid and though his start saw him fall a handful of spots back, he was able to move back into contention early on.

After the Tickford Racing entry of Cam Waters pulled off to the infield fully aflame and brought the field under the Safety Car, Fullwood was able to take advantage of the restart and put himself up to fourth.

He stayed there for the majority of the race, keeping touch with the Dick Johnson Racing car of Will Davison and even harassing him at parts.

He held his own after the second Safety Car restart which was brought about for a grass fire.

However it wasn’t meant to be, Brodie Kostecki made a late lunge of the local and Fullwood finished in fifth.

SCT Logistics driver Jack Smith’s race was ruined early when he was forced off the track and made contact with the barriers.

The touch was enough to damage his suspension and forced Smith to the pitlane multiple times to try and fix the issue, eventually finishing in 24th.

Macauley Jones in the Pizza Hut Racing Camaro shot up the field in the chaos, running as high as 12th having started in 25th.

Jones lost out when Jack Le Brocq made a move on him, pushing him wide and forcing him to lose a few spots in the process.

R&J Batteries charger Andre Heimgartner had a tough afternoon starting from 15th after an issue in qualifying saw him only have 85% of his throttle available to him during his second flying lap.

Heimgartner wasn’t able to make the most of his position during the two Safety Car restarts and came home just behind Jones in 16th.

There’s two more races to go in the Darwin Triple Crown with qualifying underway at 9:30 ACST tomorrow morning.

What our drivers had to say…

Andre Heimgartner
Supercars Driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
"Qualifying had potential but we had some issues with the car and the throttle. And then in the race the car was just very difficult; not speedy. So sort of just sucked a bit. I guess tomorrow we look to recapture some speed for qualifying."

Bryce Fullwood
Supercars Driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro
"It was an awesome day for us today. I wasn't exactly sure how to feel after practice yesterday with the times being so close but we had a really good run in qualifying. I felt like I didn't quite maximize the lap in the last run but I was really happy to come out of that with sixth.  I think all the cars are pretty speedy this weekend, we just have to maximize it . So really happy with that, we gave ourselves a good shot for the race starting sixth. The race was a little bit chaotic at different times. Got pushed off at the start and fell back a few spots and then there was a  crazy pitstop time there. We struggled a little bit for tyre life at the end of the race. Would be nice to turn it up for tomorrow. But it was really good to hold Shane out for quite a few laps. So really happy to come out with fifth, especially here in front of the crowd. I really feel everyone's energy this weekend and can't wait to go racing tomorrow.

Jack Smith
Supercars Driver, #14 SCT Logistics Camaro
"It was a pretty tough day today. Qualifying was looking quite positive. The field was really, really tight and unfortunately just the tiniest little error just kind of put us out in quali. The pace was positive and I think we really could have been further up but moving on to the race, it was quite messy. There's a lot of cars going everywhere and unfortunately we lock wheels with another car and got sent off the road and ended up with damage for the rest of the race. We finished the race and got some points but again, not the result that we want."

Macauley Jones
Supercars Driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
"Quali was disaster. Made a bit of a mistake in the Turn 1, only got like the one lap in, which was a little bit challenging. But I feel like the car was quite strong regardless of that. Then had a second lap where I got bit held up there after catching the queue of cars, so that was difficult. And then obviously starting 25th wasn't where we wanted to be. The race car itself was quite strong, which definitely was good. It held on to the tyre reasonably well. The race was absolutely chaotic, which was pretty fun to watch apart from the damage cars, but there's a lot going on to be able to try and manage. Donners [Andrew Donnelly, Engineer] did a really good job of managing it. I'm sure he was nervously twitching a lot but pretty happy with the end results. The car had really good  race pace and hopefully we can convert a bit more qualifying speed out of it."