A RARE interstate test at Queensland Raceway was pivotal in reversing Brad Jones Racing’s fortunes, and another such expedition could be on the cards.
The Albury squad’s early season woes have been well-documented by now, with a braking weakness particularly exposed at Albert Park.
Rookie testing rules allow for the use of one alternate track (as opposed to a team’s designed test circuit, which in BJR’s case is Winton), and so the team headed to QR with Jaxon Evans’ SCT Camaro earlier this month in search of answers.
Andre Heimgartner joined for the occasion, able to complete a maximum of 10 laps, and he would go on to win a wet-weather thriller last weekend at Taupō.
“We felt we had some issues in a few places and we just chipped away at it, just like you would with normal operating engineering procedures,” team owner Brad Jones told V8 Sleuth.
“We had a really good test, felt like we made some gains.
“Taupō is not a really hard braking place anyway, but it was good to be competitive again.
“I’m hoping that we can take that forward and continue that on at Perth and Darwin.”
Asked about the value of heading to Ipswich, given QR is regarded as a technical track well-suited to testing, Jones concurred.
“We’ve never really had any testing at Ipswich, so it was definitely useful,” he said.
“It’s like the opposite of Winton, with the hard braking, so it was worthwhile. The guys were very focused on the day and we took a bit out of it, for sure.”
BJR won’t test before Round 4 at Perth (May 17-19) but may do so between that event and Hidden Valley in mid-June – either for another rookie day potentially at QR or a full four-car Winton test.
While buoyed by a first win in almost four years, Jones is mindful that it’s only one result and there’s still work to be done.
“I still feel like qualifying is a problem for us,” he said.
“Certainly on the Sunday I felt that we’re still wanting a bit in qualifying. That’s something that we need to spend a bit of time on and look at.
“Nothing happens in two seconds, so we’re working through to get on top of it.”
Heimgartner fell just six points shy of the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy awarded to the New Zealand Supercars round winner.
Evans enjoyed a solid run to be 12th overall for the weekend, but Macauley Jones and Bryce Fullwood were just 19th and 23rd respectively. The latter was a Saturday DNF due to an oil pressure problem which prevented him from getting going again after being spun.
