BJR positive ahead of 500km race at The Bend

While qualifying didn’t net the results that the Brad Jones Racing team hoped for, the crew is confident in their race pace at The Bend 500.

The windy conditions created a tricky scenario for drivers in qualifying with difficulty finding stability in the car.

However, after a few strong race runs across the group there is confidence among BJR that their four Camaros have long-run pace ahead of the 500km race tomorrow.

Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Camaro) was the lead qualifying driver of the BJR-quarter, with Jaxon Evans not too far off.

The pair will start 7th and 8th row of the grid, 14th and 15th respectively.

With less than a second covering the entire field, there were very slim margins between qualifying spots.

Macauley Jones in the Pizza Hut Racing will start from 20th and Bryce Fullwood (AlphaTheta Racing Camaro) will race from 25th.

The first ever Supercars endurance race at The Bend will kick off at 13:45 ACST/14:15 AEST tomorrow.

RESULTS

Practice Four (Co-Drivers)

P.6 - Declan Fraser, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
P.12 - Jordan Boys, #96 Pizza Hut Racing Camaro
P.14 - Jack Smith, #12 SCT Motorsport Camaro
P.23 - Brad Vaughan, #14 AlphaTheta Racing Camaro

Practice Five
P.14 - Andre Heimgartner & Declan Fraser, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro 
P.18 -Jaxon Evans & Jack Smith, #12 SCT Motorsport Camaro
P.22 - Macauley Jones & Jordan Boys, #96 Pizza Hut Racing Camaro
P.24 - Bryce Fullwood & Brad Vaughan, #14 AlphaTheta Racing Camaro


Qualifying
P.14 - Andre Heimgartner & Declan Fraser, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro 
P.15 - Jaxon Evans & Jack Smith, #12 SCT Motorsport Camaro
P.20 - Macauley Jones & Jordan Boys, #96 Pizza Hut Racing Camaro
P.25 - Bryce Fullwood & Brad Vaughan, #14 AlphaTheta Racing Camaro
 

SUPERCARS QUOTEBOARD

Andre Heimgartner
Supercars driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
“Overall, not terrible results. We just couldn’t quite get it together where we needed to in qualifying. But I think there’s some positive stuff there and I see the progression forward. I think it’s a decent step from where we’ve been recently, so let’s see what we can do tomorrow."

Declan Fraser
Supercars co-driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
“Quite happy with today. I ended up P6 in my co-driver session. I made a bit of a mistake myself, but that’s racing – you have fun out there and sometimes it just comes unstuck. But I’m super happy with today. I’ll be starting the race in P14 after Andre’s qualifying, and we’ve got a good, strong, solid car. I think in the race we should be able to come through and I’ll get that dog out to see how far up I can get for Dre."

Bryce Fullwood
Supercars driver, #14 AlphaTheta Racing Camaro
“Today was a little bit up and down – all over the place for us. Brad did a pretty good job in his session, but then in Practice Five the car was really tricky. We quite a bit of work to do out of Practice and into Qualifying and in Qualifying I think I was on a lap for P10 or so. I then unfortunately made a very uncharacteristic mistake and ran off which was a real shame and I am dirty on myself about it. We do start fairly down the back but I think the speed of the car is not too bad. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do tomorrow.” 

Brad Vaughan
Supercars co-driver, #14 AlphaTheta Racing Camaro
“First had the co-driver session this morning and I was really happy with that. The pace seemed super competitive, so that’s a relief for me which is really good. I then handed the keys to Bryce for pretty much the rest of the afternoon. Qualifying didn’t quite go the way we wanted, but let’s see how tomorrow goes."

Macauley Jones
Supercars driver, #96 Pizza Hut Racing Camaro
“I feel like we learned a little bit today but I also feel like I missed a little bit in qualifying. We did make some improvements throughout the session, but yeah, it’s a really tricky session on a tricky track. We’ve got a little bit to learn overnight, but I’m confident in the race car and that it will hopefully hold onto its fire pretty well. Let's see what the long pace does and what falls our way tomorrow.” 

Jordan Boys
Supercars co-driver, #96 Pizza Hut Racing Camaro
“Today wasn’t too bad. I feel like the guys did a good job tuning it up for qualifying. Some of the direction from yesterday didn’t work though, which is a bit frustrating. Overall Macca and I feel pretty comfy with the race car and we start from P20, so let’s see how we go."

Jaxon Evans
Supercars driver, #12 SCT Motorsport Camaro
“Just wrapped up quali – starting fifteenth for tomorrow. Not ideally where we want to be, but it’s not the end of the world and we can definitely race from there. I’m pretty happy with the way things have been working so far, with Jack and myself asking for the same from the car, which is a positive sign going into tomorrow. Some more driver change practice tonight and hopefully we can race forward."

Jack Smith
Supercars co-driver, #12 SCT Motorsport Camaro
“I thought it was a reasonably positive day. With Qualifying  it’s always nice to be higher up but we can work from 15th and get a good result from there."