BJR salvage pride out of early wreckage
IT was a weekend that began with bedlam in the Brad Jones Racing garage but finished with two drivers in the top five.
But rather than revel in the glory, the team’s boss said his sights were already on next weekend’s Robson Civil Projects Townsville Supersprint.
The team behind the scenes at BJR went into overdrive on Saturday after a pileup on the opening lap saw two of their cars come off second best.
Team Cool Drive’s Macauley Jones was forced back to the garage and failed to reemerge for the race, while Todd Hazelwood in the Black Duck Seatcovers Commodore could only manage another six laps before he retired.
While he promised the mechanics and engineers were out before midnight, it was still a mammoth task for the team to get the cars repaired to race on the Sunday.
But they went one better with Hazelwood, in his first full season in Supercars, smashing his way up the grid to finish 13th – up four spots – and fifth in Sunday’s two races.
Fellow BJR driver Nick Percat also finished in the top five for both races.
“The guys did an amazing job to fix everything on Saturday and Saturday night,” Brad Jones said.
“They got out of here relatively early, obviously we could work while the race was still on. But there was a lot of work to be done.
“Everyone ends up being disappointed when you end up with that sort of damage. But you live to fight another day and that day was (yesterday).
“It would have been fantastic to get a podium but when you miss an entire day’s racing, you are behind the eight ball. The drivers and engineers did a great job.”
Percat, in the R & J Batteries #8 Commodore, has picked up two wins, at the Sydney rounds, and sits sixth in the championship standings.
Hazelwood claimed a podium finish in his first year with the team at SMP.
“Competition is so tough, you can’t undersell the difficulty in beating DJR Team Penske, Triple Eight and even Tickford,” Jones said.
HIS 1967 Camaro could not be toppled on the lap times, but according to Triple Eight Race Engineering boss Roland Dane, the time never mattered.
The former touring car driver is a part of Australian race royalty, but he was rubbing axles with some of North Queensland’s wildest personalities on the Reid Park circuit.
In what looked like the live action reboot of Wacky Races, Dane rolled out on the front of a diverse grid in the inaugural North Queensland Supersprinters category.
The support category gave an opportunity to local drivers to run their cars around the Reid Park street circuit for the first time. It was a showcase of many passions, most of them years in the making.
But it would be the luck of the Irish for Dane as he smashed out top times across the weekend in his Chevrolet.
“It is just awesome to have fun in Queensland,” Dane said.
“I came up here with my daughter and Paul Morris and co. We can’t really take an active part in the Supercars weekend but we can have a great weekend in Townsville.
“We are just having fun – honestly I am just happy to be here and to have fun and point out to everyone who is watching in Australia how awesome northern Queensland and Townsville are.”
While his Red Bull Holden Racing team has been a dominant force in North Queensland, winning 14 of the 24 races at Reid Park, Dane said there were still a few tricky sections of the hybrid surface that he had to contend with. Despite claiming 11 of those Supercars wins, the boss said he had not taken any advice from driver Jamie Whincup.
“He is operating at a different level, it wouldn’t make any sense to me,” Dane laughed.
“It is an interesting mixture and a tricky place. Hats off to the people who really race hard around here.”
It was one of the most eclectic fields to take to a Supercars track with a mix of race cars, road cars and even a Formula 1 model with Michael von Rappard in his Stohr WF1.
It was also a chance to get valuable airtime on TV with Supercars commentators falling in love with the wide array of vehicles on the track including Aussie super cars driven by local racing family the Dunstons.
It was a tough weekend for Keelan Dunston who was forced out of racing in the second Supersprinters race on Saturday after he blew the engine in his Aussie car.
It was a scary moment for the young Pit Stop Karting competitor but he was able to see the light side of it.
“I was going through the track as normal but there was a bit of smoke coming out. Come to turn three, the smoke was everywhere and I saw a bit of fire coming out of the engine when I got out,” he said.
“I am glad I got two races out. It was the first time, pretty scary but it is all right.
“I got some TV time. The sponsors will be happy.”
Jaimen Brazzale also failed to take part in yesterday’s racing in his Toyota Corolla after dumping his oil in what turned out to be a wild second race in the category.