BJR bouyed for 2024 Supercars Championship
Brad Jones Racing’s drivers have reacclimated themselves with their Supercars ahead of the 2024 season at Winton Motor Raceway.
Andre Heimgarnter, Bryce Fullwood, Macauley Jones and rookie full-time driver Jaxon Evans all were at the wheel on a warm Summer day at the Victorian track.
The former three were joined by their newly announced co-drivers who took on a fair share of the workload as the crew racked up a considerable number of laps.
Working through a program of race runs, qualifying simulations and practice starts the squad was left at the end of the day with a considerable amount of healthy data to work through.
Off the back of securing third in the Teams’ Championship in 2023, BJR are hard at work solidifying that consistent pace to keep the momentum going into 2024.
Declan Fraser made the most of the opportunity to get in Heimgartner’s R&J Batteries Camaro, logging laps and getting himself comfortable in the cockpit.
The Middy’s Electrical drivers of Fullwood and Jaylyn Robotham also tagged in and out of the #14 Camaro as they ran through their testing program.
While rookie Evans has had a bit of experience at the wheel of the SCT Logistics car, it’s his first time setting up a Supercar to his own standards.
Evans spent valuable time with the team and his engineer Julian Stannard, making the most of his only test day before the start of the season.
Jones and co-driver Jordan Boys were at work in the Pizza Hut Racing Camaro.
It was a clean day for the squad, without any major disruptions leaving the entire team feeling energised for the upcoming Championship year.
BJR’s two new Super2 recruits also enjoyed back-to-back outings at Winton on Monday and Tuesday (February 5-6).
Elliott Cleary (#19 ZB Commodore) and Cody Gillis (#9 ZB Commodore) are about to enter into their rookie season in the development series, stepping up from Super2.
It was their first chance to really get to know their machinery for this year before their debut at Bathurst later this month.
The four BJR drivers will stay around the region for the team’s Open Day on Saturday 10, with the Albury workshop being opened up to fans.
Today’s outing puts BJR in good stead looking ahead to the season opening Bathurst 500 event (February 23-25).
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Andre Heimgartner
Supercars driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
"Overall not a bad day. It's nice beautiful weather here, which is always pleasant when you don't get rain. Rolled out of the truck pretty strong, tried some things we wanted to try from last year and I think we made some good gains and learned some good things for this year and it's exciting. So just see what we can learn from today and then take it to others"
Bryce Fullwood
Supercars driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro
"I've just finished up here at Winton. First test day of 2024, was really good to get back in the car. A little bit of an odd day for us. A little bit tricky to know really where we stand. I think as a group we're all pretty happy. Good day driving a race car and looking forward to going to Bathurst."
Macauley Jones
Supercars driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
"Look the day actually ran reasonably smoothly. There's some bit of a soft (tyres) and hard (tyres) mix for the day. With Bathurst being the a hard tyre for for the first time in the Gen3 car we're trying to work on that side of things. I think the aero balance is a bit of an interesting one trying to work out the finite type things with that. We actually had a really productive day as a car 96 group and also as a team. I think there will be a good debrief to be able to go over some stuff. Jordan got some laps, which is cool. Nice to announce that I'm running again with Jordan Boys - another Albury local. So that was cool. Yeah, nice to be back again. "
Jaxon Evans
Supercars driver, #12 SCT Logistics Camaro
"Really happy to finish up the first test day of the year. Obviously my first test day as a main driver in the Supercars Championship. So it was good to get acquainted with the team again, get comfortable in the ca, fine tune some things to suit my driving style, or change my driving style a little bit to suit the car. Really enjoyed working with my engineer and mechanics and looking forward to going to Bathurst.
"(On being able to set up a car for his driving style) It feels good. It's much nicer to have the focus around you. As selfish as that sounds. There's certain driving styles that suit these cars and a few things I suppose that I bring to the table that are slightly different. But I think collectively it's moving forward. And hopefully it gives us a fresh outlook for the season ahead."
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Elliott Cleary
Super2 driver, #19 ZB Commodore
"It was great to get out in the car, it was a really enjoyable two days. I learnt a lot and by the end felt I had a good grip on the car and as a team I felt we improved the car quite a bit.
"The Supercar is a unique beast to what I have driven before which requires a different technique. But overall feeling confident from the last two days and I am looking forward to Bathurst."
Cody Gillis
Super2 driver, #9 ZB Commodore
"It was a good couple days. Progress was made and got a bit of direction. Obviously haven't done much in the car so it was good to just get in the car and bank a pretty successful couple of days. We sort of know where we're at. It was a good hit out before Bathurst.
"Pretty keen for Bathurst, a little bit nervous, but if you weren't nervous going to Bathurst I think you'd be crazy. But yeah, obviously really keen to get racing."