Supercars
Brad Jones Racing applauds the efforts of Andre Heimgartner and Macauley Jones after a double top ten finish in the Saturday race at Melbourne’s Sandown Raceway.
Race 33
79 Laps
Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries GR Supra) qualified 9th
Macauley Jones (#96 JWL Racing GR Supra) qualified 20th
Cameron Hill (#14 Dare Racing GR Supra) qualified 24th
Heimgartner drove an incredible race to keep in touch with the top ten over the 79 laps, even though the #8 lost quite a bit of time in its second pit stop. When the field came to the lane under the second Safety Car period of the race, Heimgartner was given priority on the 8/14 boom. Team 18’s David Reynolds was double stacked on the next boom and held in front of Heimgartner, which meant the #8 R&J Batteries GR Supra had to be physically pulled back to give clearance to leave the pit box. Team 18 and Reynolds were penalised for the incident but the damage was done.
Heimgartner finished the race in 8th.
An incredible strategy call from the #96 JWL Racing crew catapulted Jones up the order. During the initial Safety Car, Jones came to the lane twice, which cleared him for fuel for the remainder of the race. When the second Safety Car was called, the #96 was able to stay out. Jones crossed the line in 10th but inherited 9th after penalties were applied.
Hill had an unfortunate afternoon. He was served a 15-second penalty for an on-track incident and then, in the latter stages of the race, was run into the wall by Will Brown. Brown was penalised for the incident. Hill finished in 21st
Super2
Brad Vaughan has closed the gap in the series standings after a solid Saturday at Sandown with teammate Matt Hillyer having a solid race.
Brad Vaughan (Precision Engines #80 ZB Commodore) made an early entry to the pits after struggling to avoid another collision on track.
Vaughan was last after the first Safety Car restart, he made his way through the pack finishing 7th
Matt Hillyer (Kangan Institute #2 ZB Commodore) battled an engine issue in the closing laps of the race and crossed the line 6th.
QUOTEBOARD
SUPERCARS
Andre Heimgartner, #8 R&J Batteries Toyota GR Supra
“Solid day. Happy with that. The race could have been a lot better, but unfortunately Team 18 screwed us over in the pit stop, so a bit disappointed. Lost a bit of a lot of time there. Think we deserved a better day than that. Overall, still pretty solid and happy with the progression of the car in qualifying. Looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow.”
Cameron Hill, #14 Dare Racing Toyota GR Supra
“It was a bit of a disappointing race for us. I thought we had a decent race car but there wasn't much we could do because there were the two safety cars. When I was passing Rylan Gray and Ojeda we were three wide, and maybe Ojeda didn't know that he was three wide and he just turned in really hard. And unfortunately, got a penalty for that contact. Definitely not what we wanted. On that other restart, Will Brown hit me into the wall, so that kind of put us a long way behind. The car felt pretty fast actually and we'll try again tomorrow.”
Macauley Jones, #96 JWL Racing Toyota GR Supra
“Up and down day. I think the qualifying car I actually felt was fast. I just made a mistake on my lap there in the wet and dry conditions. But I was optimistic about the car and I felt like the car was really strong in the race. So, we sort of went from very much at the back, had a good strategy, which put me in a much better track position and had some really good race pace which was good for the crew. So, pretty happy with the day all in all and I think if we can have a better qualifying tomorrow, we'll similar hopefully.”
Super2
Brad Vaughan, #80 Brad Jones Racing ZB Commodore
“Day two at Sandown. It was a really bad first lap in the race. Got caught up in an incident, which pulled the right rear tyre off the rim, so thankfully the team are really quick at a pit stop effectively during the race. Got back out there, clawed back some points. Obviously, with what's happened with Lochie [Dalton], it's very close in the championship now. So, let's have a strong tomorrow and go to Adelaide with some confidence.”
Matt Hillyer, #2 Brad Jones Racing ZB Commodore
“Missed the mark a little bit in quali this morning. Put us a little bit on the back foot, but moved forward in the race to finish P6 and then we’ve got an overnight engine swap now, so hopefully have more power tomorrow and were lucky to finish the race today.”