Albury Supercars rookie Macauley Jones' full-time debut in the category clearly didn't go to script.
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The 24-year-old was shaken after a spectacular crash in practice at the season opener in Adelaide on the weekend - his brakes failing at more than 200km/h.
The high speed impact threw his 1.5 tonne Brad Jones Racing Commodore into the air and tore the whole rear of the car off in the process at one of the fastest points of the famous street circuit.
"It was a massive accident, probably the biggest one I've ever had," Jones said.
"It's never a good thing when you lose brakes, especially at the end of a straight like that.
"I hit the brake pedal, it seemed like it was all there at the start and then it started to fade away as soon as I hit peak pressure.
"I was a passenger from there."
Luckily for Jones, the car spun before hitting the wall - reducing the danger of full speed, head-on impact.
“You're going at such a high speed there that it's probably lucky the wall was so far away," Jones said.
"It felt like it was in a bit of slow motion going backwards down the road there.
"It's never a fun thing when you can't see where you're going, and you're going at that speed."
The BJR crew worked all night to have the car ready to race on Sunday, with Jones qualifying 21st, just one second off the pace.
However, he suffered a number of issues related to the hasty rebuild to eventually retire from the race.
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BJR’s two other drivers, Nick Percat and Tim Slade, had solid weekends, with Percat qualifying in the top-ten both days and finishing seventh and fifth in the two races, while Slade recovered from a horror Saturday to place fourth on Sunday.
Fellow Albury export David Reynolds tried valiantly to pick up from where he left off last season and was among the pacesetters from the get-go.
After qualifying sixth on Saturday and finishing eighth, he pushed the limits of his Commodore on Sunday to finish ninth after starting eighth.
"My first stint on Saturday wasn’t great, I was all over the place and lost a couple of spots," Reynolds said.
"After the first stop I started to get some momentum back though and picked up some spots again.
"I was quicker than Percat almost everywhere but one corner and that meant I just couldn’t make a pass stick.
"We just didn’t have the pace to be with the leaders on Sunday and the timing of the safety cars didn’t do us any favours.
"We’ve got some work to do before Melbourne in two weeks, but we’re not far away."
Supercars are back in action at the Melbourne Grand Prix from March 14 to 17.
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