Wildcard Jones 'gutted' after practice crash

Hidden Valley wildcard runner Macauley Jones says he’s gutted to leave the Brad Jones Racing crew with damage to repair after a crash in final practice.

The Dunlop Super2 Series regular and PIRTEK Enduro Cuo co-driver is racing in Darwin as a wildcard in a fourth BJR entry for the second consecutive year.

Jones, 23, is a mechanic at the Albury-based team and helped upgrade the ex-Tim Slade Holden to ZB specifications in order to join the field this weekend.

He was sitting 13th in the order during Practice 3 when he spun through Turn 10, backing the left-rear corner of the DrillPro Commodore into the tyre wall.

“I feel fine, I’m just a bit gutted for the whole crew and the end result really, we’ve got a pretty damaged car,” he said.

“A lot of work has gone into getting this car ready for the weekend so it’s just disappointing.

“We made some big changes last night and had definitely improved the car, I just went in pretty hard and lost the rear big time.

“It’s just one of those things, really. I’m sure we’ll get it fixed and get it running again today.”

Jones had apologised to his crew via radio immediately after the accident.

The fourth car is being run by Nick Percat’s regular engineer Paul Scalzo and veteran Wally Storey, who is usually assigned to Tim Blanchard’s car.

“It’s alright,” Storey replied to Jones’ apology on the team radio. “You don’t make too many omelettes without breaking the odd egg.”

Speaking while the car was being recovered from the gravel trap, Brad Jones, team owner and father of Macauley, was unsure if the car will make ARMOR ALL Qualifying at 1:05pm local time.

“We’ve got a reasonable spares package, it’s really going to depend on how bad the chassis is,” he said.

“I don’t think kinking the roof like that is a good omen… but it’s all about getting miles for Macca, and hopefully we can get it sorted out.

“I’m not sure we’ll get it done for qualifying, but if we can have him racing today that’ll be great.”