P13 despite race fraught with drama on Sandown 500

Careful planning was thrown out the window at Sandown Motor Raceway today after Jason Bright and Andrew Jones were forced onto plan B for the 500km race.

Jason Bright

Photo by: Edge Photographics

Jones, who was due to run a long first stint, was made to pit early with a braking problem and fell from seventh to 22nd during the extended stop.

Bright took over on lap 76 but, almost immediately, was involved in a collision with Jonny Reid who had been called in to serve a pit lane penalty. Reid braked sharply at pit entry with no warning and, unfortunately, Bright was right on his bumper with nowhere to go.

Despite the resulting damage Bright recovered to P13 at the chequered flag but says it could have been a lot better.

The next round on the V8 Supercar calendar is the iconic Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 from October 4-7.

Jason Bright - Team BOC

"I had no warning that Reid was coming into the pits so I had nowhere to go when he hit the brakes; I was already on his bumper. There was no blinker, no move to show he was going into pit lane. He just hit the brake. I don't know what he expected to happen and the stewards seem to have come to the same conclusion.

"When the brake pedal was stuck I thought Andy was going to need a much longer stop but it released itself so it could have been a lot worse. It could also have been a lot better as well though.

"Before Andy pitted we were planning to stay out a lot longer but we got stuck on a strategy we didn't want to do and had a long stop as well. We had a lot of passing to do and we were on the same strategy as everyone else all of a sudden. We didn't end up gaining any advantage.

"Added to that, we had no straight-line speed after the crash with Reid because the bonnet was pretty damaged."

Andrew Jones - Team BOC Co-Driver

"I came down on the brake bias but it wound all the way to the end of the bar and locked itself on. When I got on the gas it felt like it was out of fuel; the engine coughed. I came straight into the pits but when I got to the box and got my foot off the brake pedal it wouldn't come back up, which cost us a bunch of time.

"Added to that, the right-front tyre wouldn't come off in the stop so we had to leave it on, which would be OK if there were a lot of right-hand corners but here the majority are left so my second stint wasn't very fast. Having said that I still made time back on the guys in front of me."

Source: Team BOC