Brad Jones Racing has confirmed Dean Fiore will partner Bryce Fullwood in this year’s Repco Bathurst 1000.

It will mark the second straight campaign with the Albury-based outfit, after partnering with Todd Hazelwood last year.

Although it’ll be the first time Fiore and Fullwood have raced alongside one another, it’s not the first meeting between them.

Fiore observed Fullwood when the pair were at the then-known Kelly Racing in 2019, the former racing alongside Garry Jacobson and the latter with Andre Heimgartner.

“It’s going to be great to drive alongside Bryce this year,” said Fiore.

“I met him when he was driving for Nissan driving with Andre actually and I’ve been following his career ever since.

“He seems like a great young bloke and he’s a rising star of the sport.”

Fiore will have familiarity in race engineer Phil Keed too, having worked with him in his 2020 Bathurst 1000 run alongside Scott Pye at Team 18.

Keed joined Brad Jones Racing this year to engineer the #14 Holden ZB Commodore.

“I’m also very familiar with Phil Keed and worked with him when I was driving with Scotty Pye,” said Fiore.

“I absolutely loved working with Phil and we got along great so that combination of Bryce and Phil Keed is one I’m going to be watching with interest as we get closer to the pointy end of the season.

“I’m really looking forward to working with them both.”

Fullwood expressed his excitement in Fiore’s signing.

“I feel like 2022 is shaping up to have so much potential for us and driving alongside someone like Dean with his experience is going to be great,” said Fullwood.

“I’m really excited to see what we can achieve together.”

Fullwood goes into this year’s Bathurst 1000 off the back of his best finish to date in 2021, claiming fifth with Warren Luff and Walkinshaw Andretti United.

The Darwin-born driver finished 12th and 19th across the two races at the 2022 season-opening Sydney SuperNight and occupies 15th in the Repco Supercars Championship standings.