Bright to get Bend practice laps

Preston Hire Racing will give new PIRTEK Enduro Cup co-driver Jason Bright laps in practice at this weekend's OTR SuperSprint at The Bend.

Bright received a late call-up from the Holden squad to replace Matthew Brabham as Lee Holdsworth's co-driver for the Sandown, Bathurst and Gold Coast events.

The Bathurst winner has been on the sidelines since last November's 2017 Supercars finale, and Charlie Schwerkolt's outfit has used its allocation of test days.

Laps during a Sydney Motorsport Park ride day earlier this month were Bright's first in a race car for the year.

Bright will return to competition in the Toyota 86 Racing Series at the new South Australian venue, and he has been entered to turn laps in practice.

“[It's] always exciting to go to a place we have never raced at before," team owner Schwerkolt said of The Bend.

"We are back on the hard compound tyre and with no data from previous years, it should make it an even playing field for all teams.

"We are going to share the practice session with our new enduro driver Bason Bright, to get as many miles as possible under his belt before the upcoming PIRTEK Enduro Cup.”

Holdsworth sits 21st in the standings amid a torrid season, but left Sydney confident a "massive problem" in his Commodore had been uncovered. 

Finishing 12th in the 300km race was his best result since an 11th at Symmons Plains in April.

"I love new circuits," he told Supercars.com.

"For a one-car team it's a better opportunity for us to have a good round, given no one's got any prior data there or knowledge.

"We all start with a fresh page. It's all about who can get on top of it quickest, we'll be trying to make the most of that."

Holdsworth does, though, concede life as a single-car outfit comes with a caveat when practice starts on Friday morning on the 4.9km layout.

"That's the hard thing with being in this situation," he added.

"Those teams with two, three, four cars on the track at one time, they've basically got two, three, four times the amount of track time of what we do.

"We just need to make sure the changes we're going to do are in the right direction and we understand them and that's the big ticket; understanding what you're doing.

"This year, nothing's made sense so far until the [Sydney] weekend.

"It feels like we're starting from scratch now and we need to build on that each round and understand the car now from what we've got."