BJR looks to reset in Christchurch Following disrupted Taupō round
Andre Heimgartner, Cameron Hill, and Macauley Jones each demonstrated strong race pace at different stages, but incidents and strategy swings ultimately shaped the team’s results.
With a state of emergency in place for Taupo and surrounding regions, Supercars made the decision to cancel Sunday’s events on the North Island.
They have also confirmed that they will instead hold Race 10 on Friday (17/4) in Christchurch.
Meaning that the debut event on the South Island will host four Championship races.
With teams packing tonight to travel to the event for next weekend (April-17-19).
Andre Heimgartner qualified 9th
Cameron Hill qualified 17th
MacauleyJones qualified 22nd
The action-packed race saw Heimgartner battle his way through the opening laps, he was involved in a push and shove with Cam Waters early on. However the Kiwi was
Heimgartner stopped on lap 17 to take four fresh tyres, once the order was corrected he was racing in 8th.
Heimgartner had a tyre delaminate late in the race and dropped back to 12th at the flag.
Hill had an unfortunate off early in the race which meant he dropped to the back of the pack, however he was able to come through to the mid-teens before his stop.
The #14 ElectroVoice GR Supra ran longer than his team-mates, taking four tyres on lap 20.
Hill had pace in hand and came through to finish 11th
Jones had a relatively clean race, the #96 JWL Racing Supra made its compulsory stop also on lap 17 for four tyres. He finished 16th.
Race 9
Andre Heimgartner qualified 16th
Cameron Hill qualified 19th
Macauley Jones qualified 23rd
Hill’s crew elected to try to undercut strategy, stopping on lap 18 for the first of his two stops. Which meant he was running as high as 13th as the pit stop cycle shook out.
In the final five laps, Cam was pushed wide and lost a few positions, finishing 16th.
Heimgartner stopped on lap 24 for the first CPS, and the extra few laps meant he had more push later in the race. The R&J Batteries car finished in 12th.
Jones was able to improve on his qualifying position and make his way up to 18th, employing a similar strategy to Heimgartner
QUOTEBOARD
SUPERCARS
Andre Heimgartner, #8 R&J Batteries Toyota GR Supra
“Day was full of a couple ups and downs. Thought qualifying wasn't too bad, especially the first one, but the second one we struggled a bit more. I guess I didn't really find our rhythm this weekend and being a short weekend, it's over before we even get to think about it. Overall, pretty disappointed I guess, but we tried some different things and we just have to see how Christchurch goes with a new challenge.”
Cameron Hill, #14 ElectroVoice Racing Toyota GR Supra
“I think we struggled a little bit in qualifying today so we were starting a bit further back. The super soft tyre race went pretty well for us to get to 11th, and then that second one, we just didn't really have enough car speed to move forward. Excited to see Ryan get a win for Toyota. It's very encouraging for us and we'll go to our homework now and try turn up and go speedy next week.”
Macauley Jones, #96 John West Logistics Racing Toyota GR Supra
“A bit of a rough day. I feel like our race pace was bit of a struggle on the super soft, need to work on that. We moved forward in both races so it's positive but still feel like we have a bit of work to be done. New Track next week, so we'll see what that does.”