Perth SuperNight
A wild weekend for Supercars’ return to the West!
It was the first time the Repco Supercars Championship has made it to Western Australia since 2019 due to border closures and Covid restrictions and for BJR’s Bryce Fullwood and Jack Smith 2022 would also be their main series debut at Wanneroo Raceway with the pair previously contesting Super2 at the circuit.
The three-race format weekend opened with the “SuperNight” on Saturday. The Knockout three-part qualifying for Race 10 saw Andre Heimgartner start strong in the R&J Batteries entry, topping Q2 and then backing it up in Q3 on used tyres to secure P7 on the grid.
Macauley Jones in the Tools.Com / Hungry Jacks #96 car finished Q1 in P4 but locked the rears into turn 1 on his final run in Q2 to secure P19 on the grid.
The SCT Logistics and Middy’s Racing entries of Jack Smith and Bryce Fullwood were eliminated after Q1 along with the likes of Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth to line up in P21 and P22 on the grid respectively.
Race 10 saw Jones and Heimgartner both adopt an early pit strategy to see them settle into P15 (Jones) and P10 (Heimgartner). Smith was forced to complete more than half the race with no clutch, finishing in 23rd. Fullwood also had an incident-plagued race, with the transaxle in the #14 car failing on lap 32 - recording a DNF.
Sunday morning brought with it back-to-back qualifying sessions for Race 11 and 12:
Race 11 - Heimgartner P10 (53.8655), Fullwood P18 (54.1035), Jones P23 (54.3383), Smith P24 (54.3987).
Race 12 - Heimgartner P10 (53.7518), Jones P20 (54.0016), Fullwood P21 (54.0337), Smith P23 (54.2002).
Race 11 start was marred by an incident involving Jack Le Brocq and Scott Pye, with Pye ending up in the wall on the main straight, resulting in a red flag and an hour long delay for a restart under safety car.
Some great strategy and luck with Cameron Waters receiving a five second penalty left Heimgartner with the race’s fastest lap and a podium finish in third place - his and the team’s best finish of the season so far.
Jones’ car received front end damage on the original race start but he recovered to take P19.
Contact on the last lap between Fullwood and Smith left both cars with punctures while in P20 and P21. Fullwood detoured into Pit Lane missing the opportunity to cross the start/finish line while Smith’s car was beached in the sand trap, leaving both to record DNFs.
Race 12 was another solid race for Heimgartner, finishing up in P9 and Fullwood took four tyres taking him to P14. A late safety car set the scene for an intense last couple of laps but all BJR cars made it home to round out the Perth SuperNight with Jones finishing p the weekend P16 and Smith P18.
