Bright dark on Tander

Jason Bright was annoyedabout an incident that sent him flying on the first lap of the second race at the Sydney Motorsport Park SuperSprint.

Bright believes he was struck by Garth Tander's Holden Racing Team Commodore and sent careering off-track, forcing him to make a spectacular save that saw him avoid a concrete wall on one side and oncoming traffic on the other.

The Team BOC driver qualified 11th in the second race and believed he had the pace to feature - but after the incident the day went from bad to worse with a blown tyre forcing him to avoid another accident at fast turn one and pitting, which saw him finish two laps behind the leaders.

Bright recounted the incident to v8supercars.com.au.

"I was just driving down that straight, Rick [Kelly] had sort of forced me off on the exit there but I was back on the track and was going along the straight," he said.

"I could see Garth was on my right-hand side and just served me.

"I don't know what he was thinking, it's not like I had driven him to the edge of the track or anything - I didn't even need to because I had the inside for the next corner.

"He just sent me so, I don't know, I'm sure the stewards will look at it. I'll be pretty disappointed if he doesn't get something but I'm sure it'll be a piddly 25 points or something."

Bright and Tander are both seasoned competitors in V8 Supercars and have clashed over the years.One of the most memorable exchanges was after close racing on the closing laps of Bathurst in 2013 - Bright was unhappy with Tander's racing, and the HRT driver said he should "build a bridge". So he did - Bright tweeted a photo of his young son's blocks spelling 'learn how to pass'.

Today, Bright did well to hold on to the Commodore and avoid further incident.

"I expected to make it to the wall, that's for sure because it felt like I was heading to the wall at pretty reasonable knots," he said.

"Fortunately it pivoted enough that it didn't make the wall.

"So I was pretty annoyedabout it because I've felt like I've had a pretty good car this weekend."

Bright was unsure whether the tyre puncture was a result of the incident or not.

"I was on the radio at the time and just said, 'something doesn't feel right', the right just went flat.

"The daunting part was that the sun was in my eyes and I couldn't see how far away the wall was until the very last second that I could see the tyre barrier right there but fortunately I had wiped off enough speed in the meantime."

On the whole, the event was a step up for Brad Jones Racing, that uncharacterically struggled at the last event in Queensland.Bright's teammate Fabian Coulthard came home third in the second race and earned the team's 50th podium result.

Coulthard sits fifth in the Championship and looked an early contender after winning at the Clipsal 500.

Bright believes they can feature again tomorrow in the 200km race at Sydney Motorsport Park.

"The soft tyre qualifying didn't go well for whatever reason but our race pace for the first one I thought was very strong," he said."I think we've got a really good car for tomorrow we just need to make a good start and try to stay out of trouble in the first lap, because I'm sure we can have a pretty good day."

UPDATE Sunday August 23, 11am:

While the incident between Bright and Tander was reviewed by the Stewards, no penalty was handed down.