Pizza Hut Racing leads home BJR squad in Bathurst 1000
The Pizza Hut Racing team have been able to climb to 13th in the Bathurst 1000 in the fastest Great Race.
With only a single Safety Car intervention, it was a difficult race to make-up positions across the tricky Mountain track.
However Macauley Jones and Jordan Boys were able to come through from 17th to 13th.
With all main drivers in the hot seat for the opening stint of the 1000km race, it was a relatively calm starting sequence.
Andre Heimgartner unfortunately dropped back from 10th to 13th on the first lap but was on a mission to come back into contention.
Bryce Fullwood had a rocket of a start but got boxed in by those ahead and wasn’t able to take advantage of his launch.
Across all four BJR cars the strategy call was to pit on laps 27-28 for driver changes and fuel.
The R&J Batteries car unfortunately suffered a fuel block which meant the Camaro didn’t get its fuel fill in on Lap 27.
Declan Fraser then had to bring the #8 car back through the pitlane, putting them in last position on track.
With one third of the race in the books and a second round of stops looming the BJR cars were running in 18th (#50 SCT Motorsport), 19th (#96 Pizza Hut Racing), 20th (#14 Middy’s Racing), and 23rd (#8 R&J Batteries Racing).
The co-drivers stayed behind the wheel for back-to-back stints once that round of stops was completed.
It wasn’t until the late 80s of the lap count that the cars were called in again for a driver change and a fresh set of brakes.
Jones was the lead of the BJR cars following that round of stops, he made his way back through to 13th by lap 110.
Fullwood and Jaxon Evans (SCT Motorsport) weren’t far behind in 15th and 17th, and Heimgartner had brought the #8 Camaro back to 19th.
The next pit stop cycle came about lap 117, where the R&J Batteries and Middy’s Racing crew both decided to do another brake change.
With 40 laps to go, the BJR cars ran 17 (#96 Pizza Hut Racing), 19(#14 Middy’s Racing), 20(#50 SCT Motorsport), and 21 (#8 R&J Batteries Racing).
It wasn’t until lap 130 the Safety Car made an appearance, allowing Heimgartner the chance to climb back a few positions.
It was then a clean run to the finish with the last round of stops taken under the Safety Car.
Heimgartner and Fraser remarkably finished in 16th after their troubles.
SCT Motorsport’s drivers Evans and Dean Fiore raced to 20th.
While it was a tough day for the Middy’s Racing crew that struggled with front braking all day, Fullwood and Jaylyn Robotham were 22nd.
There is now a short turnaround for the Brad Jones Racing team before the next Supercars event on the Gold Coast in two weeks (October 25-27).
Supercars Quoteboard
Andre Heimgartner
Supercars driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
"Disappointing day. Car speed was good. That fuel issue and the start of the race really screwed us. And then obviously, only being one Safety Car, the whole race didn't allow us to get back. I guess a positive is that the car is speedy, qualifying speed and it was speedy in the race. It's a step in the right direction as far as that goes but not the results we wanted."
Declan Fraser
Supercars co-driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
“An interesting day for Car 8. Started off pretty strong, running inside the top part of the pack which was really nice, and the pace was there. Came in for my first pit stop and unfortunately had a problem with our fuel tower which put us deep in the pack. It meant I had to make an extra pit stop to get the fuel on board. So, before that, we had really strong pace and passed a lot of cars and started make some good progress. But unfortunately, that's just the way the cookie crumbles. I'm just really grateful for the opportunity that Brad has presented me this year and Andre with being out there and being a part of the team I've had such a great year being involved and I'm just excited for whatever the future holds.”
Bryce Fullwood
Supercars driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro
"Tough day here at the 1000. We just didn't really have the speed today. I'm a little bit confused and perplexed because I feel like the car was pretty speedy through a fair bit of the weekend. There's potential in qualifying and the red flag hurt us, and all that so I really see it. Just taken back a little bit by that one so we've got to get the car back to the workshop and work and debrief and come back bigger and better for next year."
Jaylyn Robotham
Supercars co-driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro
“I had a good day today. Overall, it was a long, long day with no safety cars at all really. I just tried keeping the car fast throughout my stint. They were very long stints, so we had a little bit of work to do on driving. It was a bit unfortunate how it ended up. We put a lot of work into this weekend and, I feel like a results didn’t show for it. I’d just like to thank the whole crew and Brad for having me this year I’m looking forward to doing that again.”
Macauley Jones
Supercars driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
" I had an all right start off the line, but the first lap, everywhere I seemed to go was the wrong spot.The car was a bit of a handful in the first stint. But we tuned it up, put Jordan in, and we made some good adjustments. And he was he did a really solid job, which was awesome. The drink bottle didn't work for most of the race, which was a bit of a battle, especially since it's the longest stint I've ever done at Bathurst, which was pretty tough. I feel like the hard tyres and this style of car in quite hot conditions is hard work. It's very intense. You're hanging on to the thing, so it's quite good fun. And the car was pretty well-balanced, which makes that a lot easier. And then, strategy kind of worked in our favour there. Donners [Andrew Donnelly, Race Engineer] did a solid job. Donners and Ethan [Pay, Data Engineer] planning that, which was good. Waited for 132 laps for a Safety Car - that kind of went in our favour at the time so that's kind of nice. Yeah, happy with the result in the end I feel like we did a pretty solid job all weekend just chipping away. Good result for us. God speed."
Jordan Boys
Supercars co-driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
“Good day. Was a really really long, hard race. Macca did a really good job because he did like twice the amount of driving I did, and I was pretty knackered. The guys did a really good job, tuned it up over the day and P13 I'm pretty happy with the result.”
Jaxon Evans
Supercars driver, #50 SCT Logistics Camaro
“Tough race for us. I think we had a good race, but some things didn't fall our way. Ended up finishing 20th but was pretty happy with car speed and what I was able to achieve in the car. Unfortunately, a few strategy things didn't go our way, but some positives to take away from the weekend for sure and we know there's a result not far away. Congrats to the other guys for finishing in the top 15 in car 96.”
Dean Fiore
Supercars co-driver, #50 SCT Logistics Camaro
“The first stint and a half were good, and then my foot began to cramp which was extremely painful every time I grabbed the brake pedal. It was a struggle the last sort of 10 to 12 laps of that second stint for me. But the car was great. The team did an amazing job all weekend. I think there's a lot of positives still to take from what we've experienced this weekend. Jaxon did a fantastic job so he should be proud of what he's done, because you got to finish one of these things properly first before you can get a result.”