Evans ‘frustrated’ by near miss
Despite showing strong improvement between races, Jaxon Evans wishes he could crack the top 10 at the Darwin Triple Crown.
The Kiwi’s first Supercars race at Hidden Valley on Saturday was a tough one with the #4 Brad Jones Racing Camaro having a tough time.
Evans was penalised for spinning wildcard Cooper Murray on his way to 21st, his equal lowest result of 2024.
But the BJR driver bounced back well on Sunday, coming within 1.6s of his best result of his rookie campaign.
After starting 16th, Evans worked his way up to 11th and fell just short of a second top 10 finish of his career with Richie Stanaway emerging ahead.
Despite the improvement, Evans wished he could gain one more place.
“Sunday was a good turnaround and we were much happier with our qualifying performance,” he said.
“P16 isn’t where we want to be, but it was a good step forward and we closed the gap with the cars in front.
“We went into the race positive that we had a car underneath us where we could continue to work forward.
“We were on the fringes of the top 10 and it’s frustrating not to be in the top ten, but that’s just part of it.
“I think it was a good step forward and things are trending in the right direction. So a big thanks to the team for the turnaround.”
To emphasise the change of fortunes, Evans opened up on his “struggle for car speed” the day before.
“There’s no hiding from the fact that we weren’t happy with Saturday’s results. Obviously, not only in qualifying, but the way the race panned out,” he said.
“Even without a penalty, it looked like we were struggling for car speed and maybe on the wrong strategy compared to others.”
The Darwin Triple Crown falls in the middle of four-straight race weekends across three different countries for Evans.
The Kiwi now heads to Mount Fuji, Japan for a GT Asia race with Phantom Global Racing, while he will also take part in the 100th running of the 24 Hours of Spa.
From Belgium he will be back down under for the Townsville 500.
READ THE LATEST ISSUE OF AUTO ACTION DIGITAL HERE
Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.
Podcast: Supercars in Darwin and Le Mans 24 Hours
In this edition of The Auto Action RevLimiter, we spend a lot of time talking about the Supercars in Darwin… and it is mostly all good. The 24 Hour of Le Mans excited Bruce and PG, who watched the entire race… not.
Listen to our latest episode on your podcast app of choice or here
