Fullwood sheds light on 'tough old slog'

Bryce Fullwood has opened up on his "tough old slog” on the Gold Coast, where Brad Jones Racing’s one-lap woes reared their head once again.

At this point 12 months ago, Fullwood headed to the Adelaide season finale ninth in the championship, three positions behind teammate Andre Heimgartner, with BJR third in the teams’ points.

The 2024 season hasn’t shone on BJR, which despite scoring an emotional win for Heimgartner in New Zealand and maiden BJR podium for Fullwood in Tasmania, has battled for one-lap speed.

Fullwood has qualified in the top 10 just four times in 22 attempts this season, his best finish of third at Symmons Plains coming after he qualified sixth.

It’s been a similar story for all BJR cars, with Heimgartner qualifying in the top 10 on just six occasions. Just once, in the Saturday Shootout in Townsville, have two BJR drivers qualified in the top 10 in the same session.

Heading to Adelaide, Heimgartner and Fullwood are 10th and 18th in the drivers’ standings, have the 19th and 20th best average grid positions, and BJR 10th in teams’.

"Tough weekend for us and our car. We kind of had everything that could go wrong, kind of did go wrong,” Fullwood said on Supercars.com’s Schick Cool Down Lap podcast.

"So the pit stop issues and car issues, and kind of had it all happening this weekend. It's one of those weekends I'm pretty happy to see the end of and can't wait for Adelaide.

"I think for us, we can sort of tune the car a bit in the practices and we sort of get through Saturday, but then when everyone lifts, we seem to not be able to lift to the same level. So yeah, one lap speed is definitely a challenge for us.”

Fullwood celebrated his 150th Supercars race on the Saturday on the Gold Coast, finishing 20th. Come Sunday, and the luckless Fullwood was hit in the lap 1 pile-up, with damage to his floor ensuring that the left door wasn’t able to latch properly during his first pit stop.

Fullwood ran long through the middle stint, but he was brought in with 10 laps to go for a splash of fuel, finishing 18th. Heimgartner, meanwhile, put in a spirited run from 17th to sixth, with the Kiwi now just 42 points behind eighth-placed Nick Percat.

Fullwood, the 2019 Super2 champion, insisted his race pace is solid, but given the fine margins in Supercars, reiterated that qualifying poorly is preventing stronger results.

"I think the race car is generally not too bad, but everyone's so damn good in this category and we're all separated by nothing, so if you're five spots back from where your race pace is, it's just so hard to pass at the moment,” he said.

"The way the championship is, you're sort of stuck there and you can't do anything about it. So yeah, tough old slog, is what it is. Hopefully we've got some better things to talk about after Adelaide.”

Heimgartner and Fullwood’s BJR pairing is 234 points behind fifth-placed DJR with 576 points to win in Adelaide.