Macauley Jones has recorded a Supercars career-best 6th place for a single driver event in Race 6 of the Repco Australian Supercars Championship at Albert Park today.
The race was the first of four scheduled for this weekend for the Melbourne 400 at the Formula One Australian Grand Prix.
The field was almost perfectly split in terms of tyre strategy for the opening 20-lap race, with 13 cars starting on the soft tyre and 12 on the hard.
The BJR drivers were also evenly split, with Smith starting on hards, Jones on softs, Fullwood on softs and Heimgartner on hards.
Smith pitted on lap two in the SCT Logistics Racing #4 car to switch to the soft tyre, but it was quickly evident the softer compound was wearing fast on the freshly resurfaced Albert Park track. Team Owner Brad Jones said Smith had to be commended for an awesome drive, completing more laps on the soft compound than any other car in the field while somehow maintaining track position to come home in 13th.
As drama unfolded around them, Jones capitalised on his good start in the tools.com Racing #96 car from eighth position on the grid while Fullwood’s Middy’s Racing pink rocket finished a solid 10th.
Heimgartner’s race wasn’t just about tyres however as he was hit with a sticking throttle throughout the 20-lap race but put in another great drive to nurse the R&J Batteries Racing car to the finish line in 15th position.
Jones said he was encouraged by the strong performance of the team and saw it as evidence that the team could be up the pointy end.
“Obviously our qualifying performance for the remaining races this weekend wasn’t quite as strong as it was for race 6 so we will have to wait and see how things unfold but certainly we have more of an idea now of what we need to be doing and how the cars are performing over 20 laps on this circuit so we’re looking forward to the rest of the weekend.”
