Fullwood charges through field, Jones scores top 10 for BJR

The first Supercars race of the weekend at the Melbourne SuperSprint has netted pleasing results for the Brad Jones Racing team.

With Race 3 being officially declared a wet session, a quirk in the tyre rules benefitted Macauley Jones (#96 Pizza Hut Racing) and Bryce Fullwood (#14 Middy’s Electrical).

Andre Heimgartner ((#8 R&J Batteries) and Jack Smith (#4 SCT Logistics) weren’t so lucky but provided solid races in their circumstances, with Heimgartner in 17th and Smith 23rd. 

Fullwood came through from the last spot on the grid to finish just outside the top ten, recording his best outing for 2023. 

While Jones battled his way through the 19 lap race to come home tenth. 

The crews on Fullwood’s and Jones’ cars took advantage of the tyre rule, which meant that only two tyres had to be changed rather than the four which a dry race would have required, gaining some time in the lane. 

Heimgartner’s race was slightly hampered by his qualifying, in which he had an off in the rapidfire back-to-back sessions and damaged his undertray, he from there wasn’t able to get further time out of the car, putting him back in the pack for the race. 

The team will now reassess the data for Race 4 tomorrow afternoon, having qualified already earlier today. 

BJR will join Supercars on track for Race 4 at 14:55 AEDT Friday March 31, which is also the first day of Formula 1 action at the Albert Park circuit. 

What out drivers had to say….

Andre Heimgartner
Supercars Driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
" Yeah a bit of an interesting day for us. We ended up fastest in last practice but for some reason couldn't put it together in the race. So that was a bit frustrating. But yeah, we'll have a look at everything tonight to see if we can make it better tomorrow. But a frustrating day overall, I guess. The weather today sort of screwed us a bit because other people will just put two softs on and we were on hards. So hopefully tomorrow. It's a bit more straightforward and we can be on the same strategy."

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

"Difficult start to the day I flat spotted a hard tyre. And we only had two sets of tyres. So we didn't really get a whole lot of practice, which is unfortunate, it put us on the backfoot a little bit. Qualifying just didn't quite get it together, I was sort of working my way around the track a little bit. But I felt like there was some positives in there, I just didn't quite do a good job digging it out. Then the race we had a really good start and made up quite a few spots and then I feel like th car was actually quite speedy through the race. And then the guys did a really good job on the pitstop - really fast. And then they also did a killer job on the strategy. And yeah, found ourselves in 11th. So it's a really, really positive end of the day. I feel like there is actually a bit of speed in the car just got to do a little bit better job at getting that and qualifying and stop making the race so hard for ourselves. I feel a lot better now after a race. Like we just don't get a whole lot of laps here. So yeah, looking forward to tomorrow."


Jack Smith
Supercars Driver, #14 SCT Logistics Camaro

"We had pace at times in practice. The first session, was okay we were building quite nicely. And yeah, we didn't really put it together that well in second one.  In qualifying again we had strengths but I made a mistake my on both my hard lap and my soft lap, which wasn't ideal. We had pace in the race. We just didn't really work in our favour with the track being declared wet. And we started on the hard so it wasn't ideal. We had pace though and the car felt good, so it was a positive day, but we just didn't get the result that we wanted. Obviously a quieter day tomorrow. I think everyone's approach would be a little bit different with strategy, but we'll see how it goes."


Macauley Jones
Supercars Driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro

"Sort of up and down qualifying because I feel like the car was pretty strong just didn't really maximize it on the soft qualifying but probably more happier with the soft tyre than then the hard which is a bit strange for qualifying .It was an interesting race obviously there was a bit of a an unknown with what the tyres were going to do and if they were going to last you know with last year's dilemmas, but the race car was quite strong. Had a good race with a couple of guys out there which was fun. Gen3 itself has led to some really cool racing and on these kinds of tracks and you know, you're towing up to people and you can follow them which was nice. So that's kind of cool and hats off to Supercars for that one. Yeah, and happy with the result it was kind of cool like especially after practice one with the some dilemmas going on there."