Heimgartner quickest at SMP for BJR, all four cars inside top ten

Brad Jones Racing drivers have made the most of the conditions at Sydney Motorsport Park, clocking up a mammoth amount of laps and the top time of the day.

Andre Heimgartner finished the first official all-in test of the Gen3 era at the top of the time sheets, posting a record breaking 1:29.6787.

All four BJR Camaros finished inside the top ten with Macaluey Jones ending the day in fourth followed by both Jack Smith and Bryce Fullwood.

The #8 R&J Batteries, #96 Pizza Hut, #4 SCT Logistics and #14 Middy’s Electrical Camaros all together logged 351 laps, with Fullwood contributing 121 of those. 

A clutch issue hampered Jones’ in the afternoon, after racking up just shy of 50 laps in the earlier part of the day but that was the only blight on an otherwise spotless outing.

The weather played a part over the course of the day, with a fine drizzle setting in across the morning before a drier track offered the opportunity for slick tyre running towards midday.

Heimgartner grasped the chance to run a set of Super Softs before lunch and finished the morning session as the fastest driver of the field with a 1:29.8268. 

The team were pleased with their running and feel like they are in a good position heading into the first Repco Supercars Championship round in Newcastle (March 10-12).

BJR now heads back to base in Albury to begin preparations for Newcastle.

Results

Afternoon Session:
 1. Andre Heimgartner - 1:29.6787
 4. Macauley Jones - 1:29.9584
 5. Jack Smith - 1:30.2193
 6. Bryce Fullwood - 1:30.2449

Morning Session:
1. Andre Heimgartner - 1:29.8268
3. Jack Smith - 1:31.1607
4. Macauley Jones - 1:31.7029 
5. Bryce Fullwood -  1:31.8145

What the drivers had to say…

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

“Yeah, it's pretty interesting. It's obviously very different as we all know, with areo and stuff but I think over one lap actually not completely different, there are some slight differences as far as how the car moves around a lot more on the tyre but I think we'll see the biggest difference is once you get past one or two laps, this car uses a tyre lot harder. So it's actually quite interesting especially here at SMP when the degradation is quite high. So it's going to be good racing and yeah, it's anyone's guess how new cars will go.

“So we had more of a systems check and then today had more (tyres) saved up so for sure we chucked some good tyres at it and it was as the timesheets say we ended up at the top which is good so you don't really know 100% until we get to the round obviously people play games, you know, they don't show the hand as as it always is. So yeah, we'll see when we get to Newcastle.”


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

"I think our day went okay and it's obviously really hard to know. But I feel like t thr end of the day, the last hour probably didn't quite go our way with a couple of little dramas. So I feel like we're a bit stronger than probably where we show but through most of the day we've been pretty speedy actually. So yeah, I think I'm pretty happy so far. I'm certainly not reading into the end of the day because I think there's more in it but I think we're happy - like cars are awesome. They look great. Flames coming out of them. And I think pretty good day for the team obviously with four cars in the top six."

Jack Smith
Supercars Driver, #14 SCT Logistics Camaro

"I think I think we all had a pretty competitive day at least. It was tricky with the rain and few disruptions.  It didn't help the consistency of what we're trying to achieve. But I think we made the most of what we could and overall I think we're reasonably happy. We did a lot of laps today, didn't start off that way. But yeah, once we kind of got the car we didn't get out for a while."


Macauley Jones
Supercars Driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro

“It's a bit of a mix day really like the the morning session I thought man pretty well. Got some wet laps, which is actually quite good. I think just for, you know, getting experience in the car and seeing what it does in all sorts of conditions. And then yeah, had a bit of clutch dramas in the with the practice starts fried the clutch. And then yeah, kind of had we