Fullwood records top ten finish in opening encounter at Sandown
Bryce Fullwood secured a solid ninth-place finish in Race 30 on Saturday at the Sandown 500 for Brad Jones Racing.
Driving the Middy’s Racing Camaro, Fullwood rebounded strongly after a challenging Friday to earn a spot in the Top Ten Shootout.
As the quickest BJR car throughout the day, his Shootout lap placed him eighth on the grid.
Smart strategy calls from the Middy’s crew allowed him to maximise that starting position, ultimately crossing the line in ninth.
It was a more challenging outing for Jaxon Evans in the SCT Motorsport entry.
Evans narrowly missed a place in the Shootout, qualifying 11th, but struggled with the car’s balance over a longer run.
The SCT crew will analyse where they can improve the long-stint performance ahead of tomorrow’s 250 km race.
Andre Heimgartner qualified 19th, and although the R&J Batteries Camaro showed encouraging speed during the race, he became trapped in traffic and was unable to move forward.
The Kiwi eventually finished 17th.
Macauley Jones, in the Pizza Hut Racing Camaro, followed closely behind at the chequered flag.
Like Heimgartner, he suffered from starting deep in the pack and was unable to cut through the field.
It’s a full reset tomorrow, with qualifying at 11:20 AEDT and the final race of the weekend at 15:20
SUPERCARS RESULTS
Qualifying Race 30
P.7 - Bryce Fullwood, #14 Middy's Racing Camaro
P.11 - Jaxon Evans, #12 SCT Motorsport Camaro
P.19 - Andre Heimgartner, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
P.24 - Macauley Jones, #96 Pizza Hut Racing Camaro
Top Ten Shootout
P.8 - Bryce Fullwood, #14 Middy's Racing Camaro
Race 30
P.9 - Bryce Fullwood, #14 Middy's Racing Camaro
P.17 - Andre Heimgartner, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
P.18 - Macauley Jones, #96 Pizza Hut Racing Camaro
P.21 - Jaxon Evans, #12 SCT Motorsport Camaro
SUPERCARS QUOTEBOARD
Andre Heimgartner
Supercars driver, #8 R&J Batteries Camaro
"It’s been a bad day from our side of the garage. I just couldn’t qualify. And then in the race, although the car speed wasn’t too bad, I was struggling with a couple of things. We have to change the engine tonight and then try again tomorrow. We just need to try to qualify better."
Bryce Fullwood
Supercars driver, #14 Middy's Racing Camaro
“A positive day for us here in car #14. It is awesome to be back in the Middy's colours for this weekend. Phil [Keed, Racing Enginer] and Jason [Bonney Data Engineer] did a really good job on the car overnight and it came out much more competitive today. We started the race eighth and finished ninth. We had a few issues in the race and in the garage that the boys had to work through, which probably cost us a spot or two. The speed is pretty good, so we don’t have to make too many big changes tonight, which is exciting. Now we’ll just look at the weather for tomorrow and try again.”
Macauley Jones
Supercars driver, #96 Pizza Hut Racing Camaro
"My day was up and down to be honest. I felt like in qualifying I was really struggling. I then felt like we found something with the car, a little bit of an issue from qualifying, which is good and bad, but it's nice to find some sort of resolution. I feel like the race car was pretty speedy once we got into some clean air and we then moved forward. Hopefully tomorrow we can have another crack at qualifying and see if we can do something different in the race."
Jaxon Evans
Supercars driver, #12 SCT Motorsport Camaro
"Today started good and finished very bad. Qualifying was actually quite strong. We were 11th, just missing the Top 10 Shootout but really happy to be in that front group. That gave us a bit of excitement leading into the race. Not really sure what happened in the race. We really struggled for car speed and then suffered the consequences of some pretty bad tyre deg. So there is plenty to look at. Overall, very frustrating, I was very uncomfortable driving around; not being able to fight with anything. Back to the drawing board but a big thanks to the crew. Hopefully we can qualify in a similar position tomorrow, maybe even sneak into the Shootout, and then work out our race pace."