Strong race delivers two top ten finishes for BJR
Bryce Fullwood and Andre Heimgartner have fought back in Race 1 of the Supercars Championship to deliver a valuable points haul for the team.
Middy’s Racing’s Fullwood qualified in 13th before being promoted to 12th after penalties were delivered for some yellow flag mishaps.
The Northern Territorian then raced his way to 7th in the 40-lap affair around Mount Panorama, with a stellar maneuver around Nick Percat as the MSR driver exited the pits.
Fullwood took advantage just before heading to Griffins Bend, unfortunately Percat got the #14 Camaro on the Full Course Yellow restart.
R&J Batteries charger Heimgartner came through from 17th on the grid, climbing seven positions to finish 9th.
The #8 Camaro driver started the race in dramatic fashion, being on the outside of a tangle that caused the first lap Safety Car.
Heimgartner’s steering from that point was bent but he was able to finish the race inside the top ten, running longer than the other BJR cars in the first stint.
Macauley Jones in the #96 Pizza Hut Racing Camaro had decent pace throughout the race and made up five positions to finish in 19th.
Jaxon Evans first race as a full-time driver was a clean outing with the #12 SCT Logistics driver taking onboard valuable learning.
Evans took the chequered flag in 20th.
The field resets for tomorrow with a qualifying at 9:30 and Race 2 on track from 15:05.
Super2
Cody Gillis And Elliott Cleary’s debut Super2 race didn’t exactly go to plan, with the event running without a single full racing lap.
The field spent a good portion behind Safety Car before eventually a red flag was shown for a multi-car incident at The Cutting.
Both Gillis and Cleary however finished unscathed, a major positive for the young drivers.
Cleary’s #19 ZB Commodore did develop an engine issue which the team will look to fix overnight.
Super2 is back on track tomorrow at 8:35am AEDT for another round of qualifying.
Supercars Quoteboard
Andre Heimgartner
Supercars driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
"Solid day. Had a good race managed to come through to ninth from 17th. We're able to have some good pace just need to qualify further up. Race was quite good, were able to pass some people and make some decent spots up, so positive overall but need to work on the qualifying. "
Bryce Fullwood
Supercars driver, #14 Middy's Electrical Camaro
"‘Really positive day for us today we were able to move forward and make a positive start in the teams championship, can’t wait to get out there again tomorrow."
Macauley Jones
Supercars driver, #96 Pizza Hut Camaro
"Disappointed with the day to be honest. Qualifying - really didn't piece that one together and it was a bit disappointing. I feel like the race car was pretty strong and interesting around here with the tyre life and not super stoked with the balance."
Jaxon Evans
Supercars driver, #12 SCT Logistics Camaro
"Big Saturday. A lot of learning under the belt - first qual and race as a supercars driver was certainly exciting. A few things to work on over night, but hope we can continue to make progress leading into Sunday."
Super2 Quoteboard
Elliott Cleary
Super2 driver, #19 ZB Commodore
"Qualifying was really difficult. Didn't quite get it together and then obviously made a mistake which resulted in the fastest lap being deleted. So started from the back and it was a very uneventful race. Managed to stay out of the carnage but obviously with the red flag we went back a lap. Solost all the positions gained but was lucky to bring it home after having an engine trouble all race. So in hindsight, the Safety Car actually helped us quite a bit. Now we reset and have another go tomorrow. "
Cody Gillis
Super2 driver, #9 ZB Commodore
" Quali was okay. We made some big gains from yesterday but you know, still got a lot to find. So we saved some tyres for qualifying tomorrow morning. So that's gonna be good. The race was a bit of a non event didn't really get to do any laps. So we'll go again tomorrow and hopefully we get some laps in"