Test toppers BJR happy with pace, but worried of “sandbagging”

History repeated at Sydney Motorsport Park as Brad Jones Racing topped the first official session of the new Gen3 Supercars era, but is wary of people “playing games”.

A decade ago when the Car of the Future regulations first appeared, BJR enjoyed a 1-2 finish at the first test also at the track once known as “Eastern Creek”.

On that occasion it was Fabian Coulthard leading Jason Bright, but now with Andre Heimgartner at the wheel, the Albury-based team has once again started a phase of Supercars racing on the front foot.

Andre Heimgartner was the fastest car at the offical Supercars Sydney test. Image: Supplied

Heimgartner finished in P1 by just 0.0157s ahead of Erebus Motorsport’s Will Brown at the conclusion of more than eight hours of invaluable running. 

Car #8 enjoyed a 1.3s advantage on the rest of the field in the wet-dry morning session before going even faster in the afternoon.

Heimgartner’s best of a 1:28.6787 was the benchmark of the day and six tenths faster than Anton De Pasquale’s pole time for last year’s season-opening race.

To make BJR even happier, all four of its cars finished in the top six with Macauley Jones, Jack Smith and Bryce Fullwood slotting in behind the two Erebus Motorsport Camaros, which trailed Heimgartner.

Andre Heimgartner suited up at the Sydney test. Image: Supplied

Despite ending the first official session featuring all 25 Gen3 cars on top, Heimgartner believes the first round at Newcastle will provide a more meaningful form guide.

“It’s pretty interesting. We had more (tyres) saved up so for sure we chucked some good tyres at it and as the timesheets say we ended up at the top which is good,” the Kiwi said.

“(But) you don’t really know 100% until we get to the (Newcastle) round because obviously people play games, you know.

“They don’t show their hand as it always is, so we’ll see when we get to Newcastle.”

Although Jones finished both morning and afternoon sessions in P4, he revealed he missed some track time due to some clutch issues.

Macauley Jones spits some flames speeding down pit straight at Sydney Motorsport Park. Image: Supplied

He could only record 27 laps in the afternoon after racking up 49 in the morning session having “fried” the clutch during practice starts.

Smith was one of the biggest surprises of the day, showing strong pace in his #4 Camaro covered in racing stripes.

For a driver yet to record a top 10 finish from 105 races, a pair of top-five results in testing will be a huge confidence booster ahead of his fourth full-time Supercars season.

Jack Smith navigates a wet Sydney Motorsport Park. Image: Supplied

Fullwood might have been the slowest of the BJR quartet, but he was still fast enough to finish fifth and sixth in the morning and afternoon respectively.

Most importantly car #14 achieved the coveted milestone of recording the most laps across the entire day of testing.

Fullwood completed 121 tours of the 3.905km circuit, 10 more than Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Broc Feeney, who were the only drivers to score a century of laps.

Despite being around the mark, Fullwood is wary of “sandbagging” but said he believes there is even more pace to find from his Camaro after some “dramas” developed towards the end of the big day.

“I think our day went okay, but it’s obviously really hard to know because there is a certain element of people sandbagging. It’s a hot topic,” he said.

Bryce Fullwood sweeps his way around Sydney Motorsport Park during the pre-season Supercars test. Image: Supplied

“The last hour probably didn’t quite go our way with a couple of little dramas, so I feel like we’re a bit stronger than probably what we showed.

“But I thought through most of the day we’ve been pretty speedy actually and we are happy. It was a pretty good day for the team obviously with four cars in the top six.” 

BJR hopes to replicate similar results at the season-opening Newcastle 500 on March 10-12.

For more of the latest motorsport news pick up the latest issue of AUTO ACTION.

AUTO ACTION, Australia’s independent voice of motorsport