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Bright: I am chasing silverware!

02 Apr 2014
Languishing in 21st, veteran says he's forgetting about the Championship... for now.
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A frustrated and lurgy-ridden Jason Bright heads to the Winton 400 this weekend looking to reverse a traumatic start to the season that already has him conceding his chances of breaking his V8 Supercars Championship duck in 2014 are looking slim.

The veteran’s dramas have included his car-wrecking Clipsal 500 Race Three roll and a mysterious lack of pace from his brand new Team BOC Holden Commodore VF at last weekend’s Tyrepower Tasmania 400.

All that has left Bright a distant 21st in the Championship, already 355 points behind Red Bull Racing Australia’s Craig Lowndes and acknowledging any hope of winning the Championship in 2014 has taken a distinct hit.

“Never say never, but it is pretty hard to come off a start to the year like I have had,” he conceded. “It certainly hasn’t been the start to the year that I expected so I just want to go out and collect some silverware for the rest of the year and see where I end up.”

Despite at 41 being the second oldest full-time driver in the Championship behind 50-year old Russell Ingall, and with a new youthful brigade emerging including Scott McLaughlin, Scott Pye and Chaz Mostert, Bright isn’t just uttering clichés when he talks of winning the Championship. He insists it remains a real opportunity for him.

“It’s all just got to click,” he said. “Russell (Ingall) was over 40 when he won his Championship, Lowndes (40 this year: Ed) is still well and truly in contention…. I feel like I still have a few good years in me yet and as long as I have the right equipment, I am doing a good job with it and I can put together a full year, then we are definitely capable… but not when we have a start to the year like this.”

Bright had a renaissance in 2013, claiming seventh in the Championship, one win and three ARMOR ALL Pole Positions as Brad Jones Racing (BJR) exploited the swap to ‘New Generation’ technical regulations to boost its competitiveness. 

Prior to that he hadn’t finished in the top 10 in the Championship since his last year with Ford Performance Racing in 2006. But before that he had been in the top 10 every year back to 1998.

Bright has an overwhelmingly good record at his test track, but will go there with a head cold collected from one of his Brad Jones racing teammates, Fabian Coulthard or Dale Wood.

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“I knew I was getting it by Sunday morning in Tassie … I was trying to figure out which one of them gave it to me! But I am starting to feel better,” he told v8supercars.com.au.

Bright has won at the tight and twisting layout just north of Benalla five times since 2002, and while he missed out on a win last year he did manage a pole, second and seventh in qualifying and second and third placings in the first two races before running off and bogging in the wet outfield when in with a chance for the win in the final race.

“Going to Winton will be a good chance to go to a track where we know we were competitive very recently and we will go back to our base setup and see how we go,” Bright said.

“The car got back to the workshop on Tuesday and the guys have had a good look through to make sure there isn’t any underlying problems, so we will go to Winton knowing there isn’t anything wrong.” 

Bright’s new Commodore, ‘Brodie’, was built up in days after his spectacular multiple roll during a Clipsal 500 restart destroyed its predecessor ‘The Mistress’. The car made a promising debut at the Formula One Rolex Australian Grand Prix, but was never really on the pace at Symmons Plains. Bright struggled to qualify or finish in the top 10 in any of the three races – he crossed the line sixth in Race Five, but was knocked back to 17th after a post-race penalty was applied for an incorrect safety car restart.

“The biggest problem we had was getting the car rotated hard, which really costs you in qualifying,” he explained. “Basically it was understeering (sliding the front wheels). We wanted to make it turn harder and get off the corner straighter and basically we struggled with that all weekend.

“If anything the car was too stable and that’s not what you want in qualifying, especially on a track with a couple of tight corners and long straights following them.”

The Winton 400 begins tomorrow.

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