Jones hails BJR's best championship finish
Brad Jones labels BJR's march to third in teams’ points a “great result”
Andre Heimgartner seventh, Bryce Fullwood 11th in drivers' standings
Heimgartner scored six podiums and a pole in 2023
Brad Jones has labelled his squad's march to third in the teams’ championship a “great result” after a breakout year for the team.
While BJR didn’t reach victory lane in 2023, Andre Heimgartner and Bryce Fullwood were two feel-good stories of the season.
Heimgartner ran as high as fifth in the championship before coming home seventh, with Fullwood 11th after running in the top 10.
Two wins in the final four races for Cam Waters brought Tickford Racing home with a wet sail, but BJR held on by 41 points to cling onto third.
Waters did, however, prevent Heimgartner from matching Fabian Coulthard’s sixth-place finish from 2013 by 83 points.
Regardless, both Heimgartner and Fullwood recorded career-best championship finishes, which helped BJR equal its best finish, also from 2013.
“I think it’s big for any team to come third in the teams’ championship,” Jones told the Schick Cool Down Lap podcast.
“It’s a great result, and everyone’s worked really hard to get us to that point.”
Heimgartner claimed six podiums and a pole position, and was within reach of the points lead midway through the season before a Bathurst DNF cruelled his season.
Fullwood, meanwhile, had 11 top 10s heading to the Adelaide season finale before finishes of 19th and 18th dropping him out of the 10.
Regardless, BJR will start the year in towards the front of pit lane at least, with Heimgartner keen to find more consistency in 2024 as the Albury squad aims for its first championship.
"Good end to the year for us, did what we could I guess what we had and had a good fun race,” Heimgartner said.
"Lots of battling out there and good to seal seventh in the championship — personal best for me. Pretty good for the team in third in the teams' championship too.
"Overall pretty happy with how we performed this year. Obviously there's some ups and downs, we would have liked to got rid of.
"Heading into next year we'll hopefully iron out some of those and try to be a bit more consistent.”
BJR will have at least one change in its line-up, with Jack Smith stepping down from full-time driving after the VAILO Adelaide 500.
