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Second-year Walkinshaw Andretti United driver Bryce Fullwood has voiced his frustration at a disappointing start to the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship.
While it’s already been a race-winning campaign for team-mate Chaz Mostert and the #25 side of the garage, Fullwood has not made the kind of progress he’d hoped for.
He has just two top 12 results in 11 races this season; Mostert has only twice failed to finish inside the top six.
“For me, bluntly, I’m not happy at all,” Fullwood said on the latest episode of the Parked Up podcast.
“Really happy for Chazzie and the team… I think certainly on Chazzie’s side of the garage they’ve been a lot more consistent and a lot more of a contender week in, week out.
“For us, I’ve got to say we have probably been a little bit confused.
“I think we ended 2020 really strongly but we just haven’t quite had the same speed so we’re trying to work out what the go is there.”
The 23-year-old revealed he had made some changes to his approach in the lead-up to the postponed Winton SuperSprint in a bid to resolve his woes.
The next opportunity will now come at his home event, the Merlin Darwin Triple Crown on June 18-20.
Fullwood struggled dearly at Hidden Valley Raceway last year, taking a best of 17th from six races there, and is desperate to be further up the grid this time around.
“I’ve been digging deep and working pretty hard outside of racing to put more effort into my racing, trying to I suppose find the downfall,” said the proud Northern Territorian.
“I’m not really sure, but I tried a few things different going into Winton and was really excited to see how that all went off and see what sort of weekend we had and obviously it all didn’t quite eventuate.
“So I think there’s still time to get our championship back on track but in saying that, we really need to turn it around and I’m certainly not happy with where we are.”
The 2019 Super2 Series winner admitted he’s had to change his 2021 goals from a top 10 championship finish to securing individual race results inside the top five to 10.
Fullwood is currently 15th in the standings, 88 points behind 10th-placed Brodie Kostecki.
A main game podium finisher at The Bend Motorsport Park last September, Fullwood noted the difficulties of his WAU crew having to go back on the road – leaving COVID-riddled Melbourne for New South Wales in preparation for travelling into the NT.
“I think a lot of people were triggered as soon as this came up, and rightfully so,” he said.
“There’s a lot of people that found it really tough last time, also rightfully so, but I think the biggest thing that probably we didn’t realise at the time – and this isn’t directly me – but I think a lot of people didn’t realise how difficult it was for the families at home.
“I’ve got my race team family here [in Melbourne] and some amazing friends but I don’t have my family here in Victoria so it wasn’t a problem for me, but I think for a lot of people, they got home and realised the toll it took on their family.
“Last time it was only meant to be two weeks. At the moment Supercars is saying this only meant to be until Darwin, but for those who were on the COVID tour in 2020, you can see that that’s most likely going to roll on into Townsville as well.
“If things don’t change here in Victoria pretty quick, then I would see Darwin and Townsville get put together again but then obviously there’s a big break.
“So we’ll wait and see how it all pans out.”
