Returning to the Top End is always a special occasion for hometown hero Bryce Fullwood, but this year’s event has extra incentive.

Fullwood’s father, Brad, will celebrate his 50th birthday at this weekend’s Merlin Darwin Triple Crown.

It’ll mean an extended stay in the Northern Territory for the Brad Jones Racing driver, who will continue celebrations with his family next weekend.

“Darwin’s an awesome event,” Fullwood told Speedcafe.com.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard from anybody up and down the lane that they don’t like going to Darwin, and obviously I’m quite biased having come from Darwin.

“To go off into some warmer weather – certainly the eastern and southern states have been quite cold recently – I think everybody will be quite keen to get the thongs back out and the t-shirts and shorts and boardies and all the rest.

“It’s awesome to go up and see my family. It’s my dad’s 50th birthday actually this weekend, so the weekend after, we’re having a bit of a party for him.

“We’re going to have a heap of friends come up for the event that will stay on for his birthday party, which will be pretty cool. It’ll be a very good week for us up there.”

Despite it being his home track, Hidden Valley Raceway hasn’t been kind to Fullwood over the years.

In nine main game races there to date, the 24-year-old has never finished in the top 10 – his best result being an 11th place effort last year.

Fullwood openly admitted a strong showing in front of his family would do him a world of good.

“I’m the only driver from the Territory that’s in the Supercars Championship, so for me, I feel very lucky and privileged that it sort of almost is my event, which is really cool,” he said.

“I’ve got a lot of support out there, which is really cool. A lot of drivers, probably a quarter of the field it’s their home event at the same time, whereas for me, I’m the only person that can say it’s my home event. So that’s pretty cool.

“I’m extremely lucky to have a very, very supportive family, and they ride with me along the whole way. It’d be good to get some results for everybody involved with a lot of people that have put a lot of effort in over a long time to get me to where I am.

“I just hope that we can start to get the ball rolling a bit and start having a little bit better weekends.”

The Merlin Darwin Triple Crown gets underway tomorrow with Practice 1 at 10:50 local time/ACST.