A fightback seventh position in the Repco Bathurst 1000 was an “awesome” result for Brad Jones Racing’s Bryce Fullwood.
The #14 Middy’s Camaro proved to be the shining light on an otherwise especially tough Sunday for the Albury-based squad at Mount Panorama.
Fullwood only qualified 21st yet had scythed his way to fourth position, largely on merit, midway through his second stint.
A drive-through penalty incurred when co-driver Dean Fiore prematurely disengaged the pit lane speed limiter put them back to 17th.
However, they were still able to better their finish in last year’s Great Race, by two positions, after Fullwood passed Will Brown on the penultimate lap.
“Awesome day here at Bathurst, ended up P7 which we were really, really happy with,” said the Territorian.
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“The car had awesome speed the whole way through the race.
“Were a little bit unlucky there to get a PLP I think that was really, really rough, but nevertheless, we came back from that.
“Massive thank you to my whole crew and you know really sorry to the Car #8 boys, the R&J car because those guys would have been really fast.
“They would have been right up there with me and those guys are awesome sports and they couldn’t be in the race.
“So, they were all hands on deck helping on our side of the garage as much as they could, so a massive thank you to them.
“[An] awesome day here at Bathurst and hopefully next year, we can start a bit further up. Hopefully we’ll be on for a trophy.”
Car #8 of Andre Heimgartner and Dale Wood was already a lap down after the latter ended up off the road due to contact with Scott Pye when its engine failed in spectacular fashion.
While that made for a third straight DNF in the Great Race for Heimgartner (including with Kelly Grove Racing in 2021), it is top 10s in each of his three Bathurst 1000 campaigns so far for Fullwood (including with Walkinshaw Andretti United in 2021).
Co-driver Fiore can boast four in a row, including 2020 with Team 18, but there was still some level of disappointment for the West Australian.
He remarked, “I wasn’t comfortable with the car in the first stint, but the second stint was so much better. Felt really, really comfortable and happy with the speed.
“Then we got a pit lane penalty for popping the pit speed limit button, like, a second too early on pit exit, which I didn’t even know was a thing.
“So, I’m so upset with that because the penalty just does not fit the crime in any way, shape or form, so that’s put a bit of a dampener on it for me, but Bryce did a fantastic job and so too Phil [Keed, Race Engineer] and Jason [Bonney, Data Engineer] and all the boys and girls in the team.
“They should be very proud of that because we had a tough four days and Bryce drove the wheels off in those last two stints to bring us home a decent result.”
Heimgartner dropped a spot to sixth in the drivers’ championship with his DNF while Fullwood consolidated 10th, with the duo retaining third in the teams’ championship.
The Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 is next up on October 27-29.
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