Brad Jones Racing (BJR) bounced back at Bathurst on Friday after a tough Thursday where their Freightliner car was extensively damaged in a practice crash.
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The team worked all night to have it ready for Friday morning’s first session, with sponsors stickers still being applied while the driver was in the car ready to go.
It was a herculean effort from the Albury Supercars squad who are known for their resilience and capacity to punch above their weight.
Whist Slade didn’t initially have the pace, teammate Nick Percat was scintillating, tearing up the Mount Panorama track with one the fastest laps ever and becoming one of only three people to do a 2.04 lap of the iconic circuit.
Team boss Brad Jones was relieved to see things finally turning and getting some reward for a huge amount of effort.
“Unbelievable. I can’t imagine what it must be like being in the car doing a lap like that,” Jones said.
“It’s a great job for Nick to get up there.
“We didn’t quite get to where we wanted to with setup yesterday (Thursday) but be in the top three is great.”
Jones admitted Slade’s car was noticeably slower than day one.
“It’s going to take a while to find the balance in the car that they are looking for,” he said.
“He had a big hit so to come out of that and be on track today is a huge effort by everyone, but it will take a bit to dial it back in.”
Jones’ son Macauley is teaming up with Percat for the first time this year and is enjoying being with the experienced South Australian.
“It’s a hard track around here, your trying to maximise the tyres and the car at the same time, but it’s going well – I did my fastest time ever here this morning,” he said.
“It’s never easy around here, especially with the times this fast, but Nick’s great to work with.
“He brings a lot of intensity to the table, we’re figuring out how we can work together and maximise what we have”
Albury’s David Reynolds was another who was fast on Thursday, but struggled on Friday morning.
Reynolds topped the time sheets on Thursday’s final practice session and is confident that his car will have good pace on Sunday.
“We tried a few things this morning, it was a lot colder than yesterday,” he said.
“We’ve got a fast race car and the race is not until Sunday, but I’m happy with where we are.”
Reynolds proved that by hitting back to post the second fastest time in qualifying with a 2:04.47 and will be one to watch in Saturday’s top-10 shootout.
BJR’s Nick Percat (14th), Tim Slade (18th) and Tim Blanchard (24th) missed the top-10.
The 161 lap race starts at 11:10am on Sunday.
