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Le Mans / ALMS
BRIGHT: Tough Times At BJR
Just before Sandown we were given the news that my teammate Jason Richards had been diagnosed with cancer, which shook the whole team.
Jason Bright stands in front of the carnage caused by the crash at Sandown. (BJR)
Just before Sandown we were given the news that my teammate Jason Richards had been diagnosed with cancer, which shook the whole team.
It made it a pretty difficult weekend emotionally for everyone involved, especially given that we were with him just a couple of days before racing in Tasmania and everything seemed normal.
This year JR’s provided me with the best benchmark that I could expect as a team-mate and we’ve worked extremely well together using pretty much the same set-up. He’s made me dig very deep to try and match his speed, probably more than any other team-mate I’ve had before.
It’s no doubt lifted the team as a whole and we’re missing him now from that perspective but also just because he’s such a happy, positive guy, always up for a chat and joke around. We’re all looking forward to having him back and better than ever.
The day after we had that news, I had a pretty big crash, which is just what the team didn’t need. I was at the end of the main straight when my throttle stuck at 100% sending me off the track at over 180kpm and into a tyre barrier. I was braced for a much bigger impact but, as you can see in the photo, the fence looked like it took most of the force.
It was the start of a crash-fest at Sandown, with more individual stacks than we’ve seen at any other track in quite a while.
Probably the biggest was Will Davison’s. His car got quite a lot of air and something obviously broke in the fuel system; you could see it coming out the back of the car while it was in the air. That was very unnerving to watch but fortunately it didn’t set fire, maybe because we’re using ethanol these days rather than unleaded with its much higher flash point.
It was the second big shunt for Walkinshaw Racing that weekend, after Garth Tander crashed out on Saturday.
It capped off a nightmare run for the team in terms of DNFs with one of the most spectacular being Fabian Coulthard’s at Bathurst, when he had a massive roll on the opening lap. Davison crashed out heavily in the last two laps and a fortnight later Tander put it in the wall at the Gold Coast 600.
In terms of the repair bill, it’ll be well over a million dollars by now, but the dollar size to them is probably insignificant compared to the impact it’s having on their competitiveness. The guys can do a very good job of repairing the cars these days thanks to the way they’re constructed but, as a driver, you still don’t like to see your car have such big impacts. It can’t be that good for the chassis and, even though they check everything when they repair them, it definitely has a physiological effect.
Walkinshaw Racing is a team under pressure from every angle at the moment and the latest rumour for their revival is that current Championship leader, James Courtney, is going to replace Will Davison in HRT’s second car next year.
It was always going to be interesting to see where Courtney went, whether it was HRT or FPR. Either way we’re likely to see fireworks because he’s stepping into a team that is built around either Mark Winterbottom or Garth Tander.
If it’s true, and Courtney ends up at HRT, I think it will be a pretty difficult environment for him. Garth seems to be the only driver that likes the set-up they run and, saying that, it only works for him 50% of the time.
I’m sure Courtney and his engineer will want to make changes and their experience of working on DJR’s 888 chassis could make a big difference. In my experience though it doesn’t take much to transform a car so the question is whether they can decipher where the cars are very different or whether the new information just adds to the confusion.
The other big fallout from Courtney’s supposed move will be the reflection on Ford for having, once again, lost a potential championship contender, which aren’t that easy to come by these days.
This all probably dates back to Ford withdrawing its money from DJR in 2007 and creating the situation where Charlie Schwerkolt had to bail Dick Johnson out, which has obviously put a lot of strain on their friendship.
Now they’re dividing the team and DJR has gone from being a championship contender with one round to go, to a team that will no longer exists very soon. Courtney had one year to go on his contract but the melt-down has given him the chance to defect to Holden; if that’s the case then Ford only has itself to blame.
~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
It made it a pretty difficult weekend emotionally for everyone involved, especially given that we were with him just a couple of days before racing in Tasmania and everything seemed normal.
This year JR’s provided me with the best benchmark that I could expect as a team-mate and we’ve worked extremely well together using pretty much the same set-up. He’s made me dig very deep to try and match his speed, probably more than any other team-mate I’ve had before.
It’s no doubt lifted the team as a whole and we’re missing him now from that perspective but also just because he’s such a happy, positive guy, always up for a chat and joke around. We’re all looking forward to having him back and better than ever.
The day after we had that news, I had a pretty big crash, which is just what the team didn’t need. I was at the end of the main straight when my throttle stuck at 100% sending me off the track at over 180kpm and into a tyre barrier. I was braced for a much bigger impact but, as you can see in the photo, the fence looked like it took most of the force.
It was the start of a crash-fest at Sandown, with more individual stacks than we’ve seen at any other track in quite a while.
Probably the biggest was Will Davison’s. His car got quite a lot of air and something obviously broke in the fuel system; you could see it coming out the back of the car while it was in the air. That was very unnerving to watch but fortunately it didn’t set fire, maybe because we’re using ethanol these days rather than unleaded with its much higher flash point.
It was the second big shunt for Walkinshaw Racing that weekend, after Garth Tander crashed out on Saturday.
It capped off a nightmare run for the team in terms of DNFs with one of the most spectacular being Fabian Coulthard’s at Bathurst, when he had a massive roll on the opening lap. Davison crashed out heavily in the last two laps and a fortnight later Tander put it in the wall at the Gold Coast 600.
In terms of the repair bill, it’ll be well over a million dollars by now, but the dollar size to them is probably insignificant compared to the impact it’s having on their competitiveness. The guys can do a very good job of repairing the cars these days thanks to the way they’re constructed but, as a driver, you still don’t like to see your car have such big impacts. It can’t be that good for the chassis and, even though they check everything when they repair them, it definitely has a physiological effect.
Walkinshaw Racing is a team under pressure from every angle at the moment and the latest rumour for their revival is that current Championship leader, James Courtney, is going to replace Will Davison in HRT’s second car next year.
It was always going to be interesting to see where Courtney went, whether it was HRT or FPR. Either way we’re likely to see fireworks because he’s stepping into a team that is built around either Mark Winterbottom or Garth Tander.
If it’s true, and Courtney ends up at HRT, I think it will be a pretty difficult environment for him. Garth seems to be the only driver that likes the set-up they run and, saying that, it only works for him 50% of the time.
I’m sure Courtney and his engineer will want to make changes and their experience of working on DJR’s 888 chassis could make a big difference. In my experience though it doesn’t take much to transform a car so the question is whether they can decipher where the cars are very different or whether the new information just adds to the confusion.
The other big fallout from Courtney’s supposed move will be the reflection on Ford for having, once again, lost a potential championship contender, which aren’t that easy to come by these days.
This all probably dates back to Ford withdrawing its money from DJR in 2007 and creating the situation where Charlie Schwerkolt had to bail Dick Johnson out, which has obviously put a lot of strain on their friendship.
Now they’re dividing the team and DJR has gone from being a championship contender with one round to go, to a team that will no longer exists very soon. Courtney had one year to go on his contract but the melt-down has given him the chance to defect to Holden; if that’s the case then Ford only has itself to blame.
~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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