Race 3 a recovery effort for BJR at Melbourne SuperSprint

The Brad Jones Racing Supercars were in the thick of the action in Race 3, which unfortunately cost the team quite a bit during the opening event of the Melbourne SuperSprint.

Bryce Fullwood in the Middy’s Electrical Camaro started the race out of ninth, and held his nerves after the aborted first start to make his way to seventh in the first few laps.

It was on the third tour of the Albert Park circuit that Fullwood was pushed wide by Todd Hazelwood, leaving the circuit and dropping back to 13th.

Hazelwood was penalised for the incident, but it did little to help with Fullwood’s recovery who eventually came over the line in 17th.

SCT Logistics driver Jaxon Evans was another that was caught up at the start of the race, coping massive damage to the rear of the #12 Camaro.

Evans was tagged by another car in the final corner on the second lap, spinning him into the tyre wall.

The Kiwi was able to continue but was hamstrung by the extensive damage.

Macauley Jones in the bright yellow SpongeBob SquarePants livery who had earlier topped the first practice session, was as equally unlucky getting roughed up in opening battles and shuffled back.

The Pizza Hut Racing Camaro gained pace as the 17 lap race wore on, but Jones wasn’t able to make his way around those in front, finishing in 20th.

Andre Heimgartner’s car balance wasn’t where the R&J Batteries driver needed it to be, making Race 3 a rather difficult affair.

Heimgartner however was able to move forward a few positions from qualifying to end the day in 18th.

With an earlier qualifying session setting the team up for tomorrow’s Race 4, the squad now works towards maximising the points opportunities there.

The second race of the weekend is on track at 14:45 AEDT Friday.

Quoteboard

Andre Heimgartner
 Supercars driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
"My day wasn't great to be honest, was a bit of a struggle. We could have had a worse race there's something in that. Just need to try and sharpen 'er up for the race tomorrow and then think of  what we need for qualifying. And go from there, it's just frustrating I guess."

Bryce Fullwood
Supercars driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro
"Look obviously really busy day here at the AGP, six runs on track for us, including the ride session. So really, really busy day. We qualified ninth and 13th. Didn't quite get our new tyre run in with the Yellow Flag situation in the second quali. Then first race we just got hit out of the way, unfortunately and that put me right down in the pack and. It was really tough from there. Unfortunately we did have the speed to come back through so lost a lot of spots. Eyes forward for tomorrow."

Macauley Jones
Supercars driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
"Long day, plenty of sessions. We came out of the gate pretty happy with the car but the track evolves a lot here so it was challenging to keep up with what the track was doing and the temperature of the day. Pretty disappointing race car I would say, I feel like that's been a strength for us lately, but at the moment  abit less so. I feel like the qualifying car was pretty strong, which is encouraging and something weworked on from Bathurst but yeah, but bit of work to be done in the race."

Jaxon Evans
Supercars driver, #12 SCT Logistics Camaro
"Today started really good. We had P5 in the first practice session and the first time on track in this car. So it was really exciting, was pretty happy with the performance. Maybe lost our way a little bit in practice two, didn't quite have the car in the window that we wanted. So fell down the timing sheets, but was pretty confident going into qualifying one. Again, was not ideal, made mistakes on both my runs, which was unfortunately why we ended up right down the back. And a fair way behind our teammates. But qualifying two I think was a step in the right direction, made some good changes and things like that. And was a lot more comfortable but not the perfect session.  WIth the race, starting from the back it's always carnage back there. I don't really know what happened on lap two but going into last corner, I got turned around and ended up in the fence so it wasn't great. And just had to limp around and finish the race with a lot of damage to the rear of our car. So not ideal, but some positives to take away from today and we'll move forward and hopefully continue to build on it as the weekend progresses."