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BRIGHT: Changing Times
V8 Supercar ace Jason Bright weighs in on the Gold Coast 600 and the announcement that his primary sponsor is jumping ship for 2011
With Trading Post gone for 2011, Brighty and his BJR team are now looking for a new backer. (LAT)
If there was one thing that became evident from the Gold Coast meeting, it was that there was a big benefit in coming out beforehand to do a test, which some would say was not really in the spirit of the idea.
Triple Eight, for example, brought Andy Priaulx out for a full test day at Queensland Raceway in addition to the test day everyone did. David Brabham had obviously done Phillip Island and Bathurst in the Irwin car and Scott Dixon had done a test day as well.
With that in mind, Priaulx was probably the best of the internationals and Dixon did very well as well. If it had been an even playing field with no extra testing though, I think there were a couple of guys who were the real stars; Sebastien Bourdais for example.
My dad usually has a fair idea of what’s going on all through the field and takes a lot of notice. He said to me after the first race that Bourdais was by far the standout, just by the pace he was showing early in the race and mixing it with a lot of the regular drivers. He certainly surprised me. He’s got a lot of experience now in different cars but, given that other guys had done a full test day and some guys race tin-tops for a living, you wouldn’t expect that he was going to be the best of the bunch.
Another one is Patrick Long who, before the event, was pretty much unknown in Australia and the motorsport media here had written him off because he didn’t have a profile. Following the event it’s been very different. It’s one of those things where, when a guy steps into a car that he’s not familiar with, it’s how comfortable they look, how quick they adapt and how much pace they’ve got. He looked very comfortable and I didn’t see any mistakes from him over the weekend and a lot of the Australian motorsport media ended up eating their words.
There’s a lot of talk at the moment about not allowing the international drivers to do test days or compete at the other enduros to make it a bit fairer and I hope it comes off because, otherwise, I’m a total fan of the event. I’d love to hear what you thought about it and who you’d like to see in the car next year.
On another note, it was recently announced that Trading Post has withdrawn its sponsorship from Brad Jones Racing, which is disappointing given the hard work that has gone into this season and the progress I feel we’ve made towards the front of the field, not-to-mention the potential still to come.
Apparently they agree that V8 Supercars is the right tool and are going to stay in the sport, but they had to find a cheaper deal and we couldn’t compete.
It happens; unfortunately it’s like any advertising. Other companies and advertising mediums are out there trying to win business but, as we know from any business, a cheaper deal isn’t always the right one.
We’re going to give them a good send off in the last few rounds, starting with Tassie in a few days time. It’s a circuit where I made my V8 debut in 1997 in a Holden and I love going back to the classic V8 Supercar venues. It’s always good going to the street meetings and some of our newer events but Tassie is a classic little Australian track; very relaxed, the fans get close to the action with a beer and the racing’s always pretty tight.
~Jason
Jason Bright races in the V8 Supercar Championship with Trading Post Racing. He is a race winner in the category and finished third in the standings in 2001 and 2004. He progressed to V8s after a successful single-seater career, which included winning the 1995 Australian Formula Ford Championship and finishing sixth in the 2000 Indy Lights series with five podiums.
Learn more about Jason by visiting www.jasonbright.com.au and on his official Facebook page.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
Triple Eight, for example, brought Andy Priaulx out for a full test day at Queensland Raceway in addition to the test day everyone did. David Brabham had obviously done Phillip Island and Bathurst in the Irwin car and Scott Dixon had done a test day as well.
With that in mind, Priaulx was probably the best of the internationals and Dixon did very well as well. If it had been an even playing field with no extra testing though, I think there were a couple of guys who were the real stars; Sebastien Bourdais for example.
My dad usually has a fair idea of what’s going on all through the field and takes a lot of notice. He said to me after the first race that Bourdais was by far the standout, just by the pace he was showing early in the race and mixing it with a lot of the regular drivers. He certainly surprised me. He’s got a lot of experience now in different cars but, given that other guys had done a full test day and some guys race tin-tops for a living, you wouldn’t expect that he was going to be the best of the bunch.
Another one is Patrick Long who, before the event, was pretty much unknown in Australia and the motorsport media here had written him off because he didn’t have a profile. Following the event it’s been very different. It’s one of those things where, when a guy steps into a car that he’s not familiar with, it’s how comfortable they look, how quick they adapt and how much pace they’ve got. He looked very comfortable and I didn’t see any mistakes from him over the weekend and a lot of the Australian motorsport media ended up eating their words.
There’s a lot of talk at the moment about not allowing the international drivers to do test days or compete at the other enduros to make it a bit fairer and I hope it comes off because, otherwise, I’m a total fan of the event. I’d love to hear what you thought about it and who you’d like to see in the car next year.
On another note, it was recently announced that Trading Post has withdrawn its sponsorship from Brad Jones Racing, which is disappointing given the hard work that has gone into this season and the progress I feel we’ve made towards the front of the field, not-to-mention the potential still to come.
Apparently they agree that V8 Supercars is the right tool and are going to stay in the sport, but they had to find a cheaper deal and we couldn’t compete.
It happens; unfortunately it’s like any advertising. Other companies and advertising mediums are out there trying to win business but, as we know from any business, a cheaper deal isn’t always the right one.
We’re going to give them a good send off in the last few rounds, starting with Tassie in a few days time. It’s a circuit where I made my V8 debut in 1997 in a Holden and I love going back to the classic V8 Supercar venues. It’s always good going to the street meetings and some of our newer events but Tassie is a classic little Australian track; very relaxed, the fans get close to the action with a beer and the racing’s always pretty tight.
~Jason
Jason Bright races in the V8 Supercar Championship with Trading Post Racing. He is a race winner in the category and finished third in the standings in 2001 and 2004. He progressed to V8s after a successful single-seater career, which included winning the 1995 Australian Formula Ford Championship and finishing sixth in the 2000 Indy Lights series with five podiums.
Learn more about Jason by visiting www.jasonbright.com.au and on his official Facebook page.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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