
After a horror start, with all four cars qualified at the very bottom of the grid on Saturday, Brad Jones Racing recovered with two top-10 finishes for Nick Percat at the fourth round of the Supercars championship at Tailem Bend.
In wet conditions on Saturday, the Albury-based squad got its tyre pressures wrong, which massively affected car speed and saw them all start at the back of the field.
With nothing to lose, they decided to roll the dice and start the race on slick tyres on a drying track - while the rest of the teams started on wets.
It didn't take long for the risk to pay off, with most cars coming in early for dry tyres, while Percat continued on slicks- pitting, incredibly, from the lead, very late on lap 21, before returning to the track in third place.
With cold tyres, he lost a place to Anton De Pasquale, before fighting back with his fresh rear tyres and racing hard to the finish to cross the line in fifth from last place on the grid.
"It was really good. It was almost one that got away actually," Percat said.
"I was struggling to hear AE (engineer Andrew Edwards) on the radio, so we probably pitted just a little bit late. The team did a terrific job, the car was really, really, fast in the dry so full credit to the BJR guys and girls.
"I ran a little wide at the end and that cost us a chance at a podium, but it was pretty mega to be up there from stone last on the grid."
Sunday went the opposite way as Percat qualified a solid seventh for the first race, but finished 10 spots down in 17th after being spun in some lap one carnage with damage done in the process.
He recovered well in the afternoon's final event to record another top ten, with a sixth-place finish to land ninth in the championship.
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Todd Hazelwood continues to impress in his second year with BJR and raced strongly after he struggled for good qualifying pace.
He made up an incredible 15 places in the races over the weekend and finished Sunday's finale just outside the top ten in 13th.
"I'm reasonably happy with my race results considering how far back we have been starting," Hazelwood said.
"Obviously we made it really hard for ourselves qualifying so poorly and it's not where we should be as a team, so we've got some homework to do before the next round. Fortunately, our race car is strong and I could make some good passes and felt aggressive and confident.
"I need to work on getting the car to the front of the grid in qualifying so we can race the guys at the front which we have the pace to do."
Albury's Dave Reynolds has started to get stronger with his new team, Kelly Grove Racing, as the year progresses.
Reynolds did not finish race one after he sustained damage to his Ford Mustang, but was eighth in Sunday's last race to sit 13th in the championship.
The multiple Supercars race winner has shown front running speed at times, and it's just a matter of time before he finds the consistency needed to move up the field.
The next round is at Winton Motor Raceway on May 29 and 30.
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