AFTER almost a decade in the pipeline, Jack Le Brocq and Bryce Fullwood are hitting their straps at the top level.
Various comparisons can be drawn between the duo, who yesterday finished one-two in Practice 2 at the NTI Townsville 500.
Le Brocq debuted in Super2 in 2014 and spent four seasons there before graduating. He’s since bounced around with two years at Tekno Autosports, two years at Tickford Racing and now into his second campaign with Matt Stone Racing.
MORE: Le Brocq enters exclusive ATCC/Supercars club
Fullwood’s five-season Super2 tenure started in 2015 and finished with the 2019 title. After an initial two-year Supercars Championship burst with Walkinshaw Andretti United, he’s into year two at Brad Jones Racing.
Both have previously had sporadic results but are now in the midst of genuine career years.
While some might point to parity helping their cause, Le Brocq has consistently been one of the fastest Camaro drivers – he has as many top-four starts this year as Shane van Gisbergen – while Fullwood is matching or outpacing teammate Andre Heimgartner more than ever.
“When you only have three test days a year and no tyres to go testing with, it makes it pretty hard to actually get better,” Fullwood of his journey.
“Footy players get to train and not just play; we just play. It makes it a little bit hard for us to get up to grips with the car.
“I think obviously for me this year I’m really enjoying the new Gen3 package… I’ve found a really good home at Brads and gelling really well with my engineer Phil (Keed).
“It takes a little bit of time. Last year was really difficult for us, but you can’t underestimate how long it takes to gel and start working properly together.
“Now things are starting to work for us; we haven’t changed a whole lot at all, it’s just things are starting to happen.
“I think last year there was a lot of positives for us but not many of them actually came to fruition. It’s nice this year that it’s all starting to happen a bit more for us.”
Le Brocq is the championship’s most recent race winner, having delivered a stellar performance last time out in Darwin to secure MSR’s maiden silverware.
“It’s one of those things, I think the more time you spend in these cars and this category, you learn a lot out of it,” he said.
“For me I’m getting a lot out of the last couple of years. Even with my time with Tickford I was just interrupted with COVID and bits and pieces so it made it quite hard to progress as a driver and before that I had a pretty rough couple of years.
“So for myself, I’ve settled into the team, I’m really enjoying it, I’m in a good headspace and the boys are doing a great job for us as well.
“I suppose it’s just one of those things, you just start gelling with the car and the guys around you.”
Le Brocq has regular race engineer Jack Bellotti back on deck this weekend, having had Matt Saunders fill in at Hidden Valley.
