After a tough Perth SuperSprint, Brad Jones Racing has done plenty of homework to “get back on track” at this weekend’s trip to Tasmania.
After showing some speed at Albert Park, the team took a step backwards at Wanneroo where it struggled to find the setup sweet spot with its Chevrolet Camaros.
All four drivers Andre Heimgartner, Bryce Fullwood, Macauley Jones and Jack Smith lost valuable ground in the championship.
Heimgartner and Fullwood were the most hurt, dropping five and four spots in the championship respectively.
BJR will never forget Symmons Plains after Jason Bright and Fabian Coulthard provided the Albury squad with its first clean sweep.
But that was 10 years ago now and since the COVID break the four-car team has only collected two top 10 finishes from the last six races at the circuit.
Despite the lean run of form of late, team owner Brad Jones is optimistic ahead of the Tasmania SuperSprint where he hopes the team can start again after Wanneroo.
“Symmons Plains is a place we have performed well at over the years, so I am looking forward to getting into it,” he said.
There is enough degradation in the track surface that strategy will come into play and I’m hoping that we get back on track.
“We’ve had a really strong start to the year however we did have a difficult time in Perth, so looking to start again.
“Being a two-day format there is not going to be a lot of time, (but) hopefully we will have the cars ready to compete for a top 10 position.”
It will be a notable weekend for Heimgartner, who will raise a century of Supercars round starts since his debut at Bathurst nine years ago.
The Kiwi would love nothing more than to celebrate the milestone with his first Tasmania podium.
Fullwood is another looking to improve his Tasmania record with a best finish of 17th recorded in 2021.
The #14 driver has admitted he has been busy doing plenty of homework to find how to rediscover the pace seen at the Australian Grand Prix.
“Tasmania is actually a track I struggled a bit at last year, so I am doing a lot of homework going into this weekend,” Fullwood said.
“We need to work out what things correlate between AGP, Perth and then into Tassie and hopefully we can get something a little bit faster for the race.”
Macauley Jones will strip off the gold paint and return to his usual red and white colour scheme.
But in more serious matters he expects the Gen3 Symmons Plains show will be faster than the previous generations.
“Up the back straight I think you get to 265kph in the old car and I would imagine we will hit 270 or something in the new car, which is pretty moving,” he said on the BJR Run Down Podcast.
The two-day Tasmania SuperSprint begins on Saturday.
2023 Tasmania SuperSprint schedule (all times AEST)
Saturday, May 20
Practice 1: 9.00-9.30
Practice 2: 10.55-11.25
Qualifying R10: 12.55-13.45
Race 10: 15.50-16.45
Sunday, May 21
Qualifying R11: 9.50-10.05
Qualifying R12: 10.15-10.30
Race 11: 13.05-14.00
Race 12: 15.50-14.45
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