BJR takes lessons from tough Christchurch Saturday
Brad Jones Racing takes on board important lessons on Saturday in Christchurch.
The team was dealt a few tough hands across the two races, with damage and mechanical issues affecting all three cars.
Sunday’s program features a single 200km race remaining on the South Island, and BJR hopes to improve its results on Sunday afternoon.
Qualifying kicks off at 11:50am NZST / 9:50am AEST.
Race 11
Andre Heimgartner (R&J Batteries GR Supra) qualified 9th
Cameron Hill (ElectroVoice GR Supra) qualified 12th
Macauley Jones (JWL GR Supra) qualified 23rd
Both Heimgartner and Hill came to grief in the opening laps sustaining enough damage to send them both to pitlane. The BJR crew did a remarkable job to repair both cars and send them back out. However they were both 6 laps down and the focus turned to collecting data for the remaining races.
Jones, is still looking for a bit more of a comfortable balance in the car. The #96 Supra made their compulsory pit stop on lap 19. Rejoining in 22nd, Jones was able to race to 18th.
Race 12
Andre Heimgartner (R&J Batteries GR Supra) qualified 11th
Cameron Hill (ElectroVoice GR Supra) qualified 20th
Macauley Jones (JWL GR Supra) qualified 22nd
Heimgartner nursed an engine issue that was discovered on the warm-up lap throughout the race. He lost a number of spots at the start but an incredibly quick four tyre stop on Lap 22 meant that the Kiwi was able to finish 15th.
Hill was the first of the BJR cars to stop and only took rears on Lap 13. He rejoined in last and did an incredible job to come across the line just behind Heimgartner in 16th.
Jones had a tough race, losing positions off the start and finished 23rd.
QUOTEBOARD
SUPERCARS
Andre Heimgartner, #8 R&J Batteries Toyota GR Supra
“Ups and downs today. I feel like we made a little bit of progress in qualifying, managed to execute fairly well, but in the first race I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and got damage. And then in the second one, as soon as I started the car, we had engine issues so that sort of was an issue the whole race and had us back in the pack. But I feel like we have made some progress with the car and the handling of stuff and heading in the right direction so there's definitely some positives.”
Cameron Hill, #14 ElectroVoice Racing Toyota GR Supra
“My first qualifying was good which was nice to finally have a good run. Felt like I've been starved of laps a little bit this weekend. Made a few too many mistakes in the second quali. First race just got beat up a little bit by the young blokes just running into my rear bar and then a few more blokes running into my door and broke my steering, that was a bit sad. The team did a great job to fix the car up and we got out there for the super soft race. Tried something aggressive with strategy and probably paid the price a little bit later, but it was nice to complete all the laps of a race for once.”
Macauley Jones, #96 John West Logistics Racing Toyota GR Supra
“Tough day, still coming to grips with the car around this track. We struggled in both qualis with car speed so started the races from 23rd and 22nd and just had a hard time passing cars in the races. We’ve been throwing a lot of changes at it and playing with the setup trying to find what works for us. Think we ended up 18th and 23rd in the races so definitely some work to do overnight ahead of tomorrow.”