Tough times with Team BOC driver Jason Bright

Tough times with Team BOC driver Jason Bright

Former Bathurst Champion Jason Bright speaks to 51 thoughts about his year so far and his thoughts on the upcoming Bathurst 1000

Jason Bright has struggled throughout the year due to poor qualifying performances which have hindered his chance at challenging for top tens on a consistent basis. His best qualifying result is a 7^th in race five at Tasmania and his best race finish was 6^th in race four also at Tasmania and he was on the pace at Adelaide and the Australian Grand prix at Melbourne.

After Tasmania, every He feels that the car is good during the race but he feels that in qualifying he feels that the car lets him down getting off corners which costs him time. “we are breaking strong, we are getting the car rotated well but we just aren’t getting enough drive off the corner for those one or two laps. Its funny that it still translates into a pretty reasonable race car just the drive off the corners in qualifying seems to be our problem”.

At Sandown, Jason hoped that he was in for a better weekend and would be in and around the top ten, but what could go wrong did go wrong for the former Sandown 500 champ (he won in 2006 alongside Mark Winterbottom). Bright and teammate Andrew Jones received a 35 second time penalty for changing tyres on the grid before the start of the second qualifying race for the race on Sunday.

It pushed them from 12^th to 23^rd on the grid, a mistake which hurt them on Sunday in the rain. “It compromised our strategy come Sunday as we needed to try and take some risks to get back up there. One of those tricks where to try and go to the dry tyres sooner than everyone else. Unfortunately, when we did that the rain came and we got a puncture.”

Jason feels that Sandown is a precursor to Bathurst, it allows you to get the all important co-driver stuff sorted and at the same time it allows the co-driver to come to grips with driving the car. He feels that you can’t take to much from Sandown and take it to Bathurst as the are totally different track. Also it’s a different build up to Bathurst, espically this year, honouring ten years since nine time champion Peter Brock died in a horrific crash in a rally event in Perth.

Over the past few years the BOC Holden Commodore has been stronger at Bathurst as the car is better suited the conditions at the mountain.  The 1998 champion (who drove with Steven Richards) feels that if you qualify up the front you can run the strategy that suits you and feels that if you stay out of trouble you have a change to win.

Jason hopes that he can finish the year off well by improving his qualifying performances and inturn sneak into or around the top ten of the championship.

1. How would you rate your 2016 season?

Not good enough, I wouldn’t say. I felt like we came out of the box pretty well we sort of lacked qualifying speed since round two basically. We had good speed at Adelaide and at the grand prix and then Tasmania. But since then it hasn’t been good enough so if anything we need to sort out our qualifying speed. Our race pace seems reasonable, there still might be a little there to find but our qualifying speed certainly is where we need to lift things up.

2. In terms of qualifying speed where do you think your struggling the most?

To be honest I feel like our issue is getting off the corners, not so much in a straight line but while we are still turning and coming off the corners. They are the tracks that hurt us the most. Unfortunately it is something that is on every track theres just varying amounts of how much you need to sort of diagonal drive we call it. If we can get off the corners well we are usually not to bad. Winton was a classic example of that, there was that much grip on the track, it didn’t punish that weakness too much and we had pretty speedy cars there that weekend.

3. Is it difficult to set the car up for qualifying sessions though?

It is just that one factor that I feel like hurts us, we are breaking strong, we are getting the car rotated well but we just aren’t getting enough drive off the corner for those one or two laps. Its funny that it still translates into a pretty reasonable race car just the drive off the corners in qualifying seems to be our problem.

4. How have you found your car looking after the tyres?

Yeah, we are pretty good in that area. I feel like our tyre life is strong, our braking is strong there is not a lot of factors that that I am unhappy with. Its really just our pace in qualifying and getting the most out of the car that is an issue.

5. What do you need to improve coming into Bathurst?

Bathurst is a little bit different, qualifiying isn’t the be all and end all. Its still a much easier day if your up the front, it does make for a much easier day as you get to do the strategy that you want to do rather than being comprised. So we need to qualify well there, last year we were properly a little bit down on power in some areas and I feel like we have made some improvements there. Hopefully at Bathurst we are not as weak as what we were when it came to full tanks last year.

6. At Sandown you finished 21st what did you think went wrong last weekend?

Oh there was quite a lot of things, we got a penalty in the qualifying race which put us to the back of the grid which compromised a lot of things. It compromised  our strategy come Sunday as we needed to try and take some risks to get back up there. One of those tricks where to try and go to the dry tyres sooner than everyone else. Unfortunately when we did that the rain came and we got a puncture. There was a multiude of things that added up to us having a pretty miserable day.

7. Was it difficult to set the car up for the wet conditions?

Nah, I didn’t feel like we were too weak in the wet. Certainly being on the right tyre at the right time has a big effect, we made the wrong call there. It punished us pretty hard and put us a lap down.

8. With it being a time certain race, was it confusing as a driver to find out was going on?

Yeah I mean we have our own software that gives us a pretty good indication of where all of that is at. As long as the officials run by the rules (which isn’t always) we using have a pretty good idea of what is going on. That turned out to be the case on Sunday, we had a fair idea of where it was meant to finish and how many laps to go. Sometimes it is a little bit confusing if you haven’t got all the software in front of you.

9. What can you take from that going into Bathurst?

Not a lot, I feel like it is a precursor, it’s a good chance to get all our co-driver stuff sorted out. Its such a different track and week, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your going to have either a good or bad weekat Bathurst. From years gone by we have been much more competitive at Bathurst than what we have been at Sandown for a long time. That’s because our car works pretty well at Bathurst, the surface up there suits us a lot more than it does at Sandown with the types of corners. Hopefully we can go to Bathurst and Sandown will be a distant memory.

10. What are your expectations for Bathurst?

It’s a track that has suited us pretty well, we have qualified there well over the last few years. The area where we have struggled over the last few years is on full tanks and the power that we had in that area. So I feel like we should be in better shape for it this year, if we can keep out of trouble, hopefully we are in the mix at the end of the day to have a good battle.

11. What would your favourite Bathurst memory be, either past or present?

Winning it in 1998 was pretty special after following it all my childhood, to actually get to stand on that top step was pretty special. A little bit harder to get the second one unfortunately, ive come close a couple of times and hopefully this year we can repeat what happened in 1998.

12. What are your expectations for the rest of the year?

The second half of last year went a lot better than the first half. Hopefully I can sort of replicate that a little bit and find a little bit of qualifying speed. We can finish off the year and have some good qualifying performances and sneak back up into the top ten or close to the top ten in the championship like we were earlier in the year, it would be pretty satisfying