Brad Jones Racing upbeat after mixed bags of results

"We could have had better finishing positions for sure, but the really pleasing thing was the pace that our cars showed over the weekend. Andre (Heimgartner) and Bryce have gelled really quickly with the team and the cars, so it's a really positive start," Jones said.

Heimgartner should have finished with two top results if not for an over aggressive fuel strategy on Saturday night seeing him drop from eighth to 15th. On Sunday he again gave BJR fans a glimpse of what is to come for 2022 finishing a strong fifth in tricky conditions.

"Andre's drive on Sunday was very impressive." Jones said.

"It's a shame we didn't have the strategy right on Saturday as he, and the team, deserved a couple of top tens."

Meanwhile in the next garage, Bryce Fulwood was adjusting well to his new environment, qualifying for Sunday's Top Ten Shootout, eventually putting himself ninth on the grid after starting 11th on Saturday.

Making a quick call to pit for wet tyres when the rain came down mid race, cruelled any chance of a top ten finish as the conditions cleared fairly quickly requiring an extra pit stop to get back on slicks for the remainder of the race, eventually crossing the line 18th.

"I don't think 12th and 18th were representative of Bryce's pace over the weekend. He's definitely a consistent top ten prospect," Jones said.

"This is only his third year in the series, so the future looks really bright for him."

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The Border's Dave Reynolds was also upbeat after being on the pace all weekend, in all sorts of conditions, and could have easily come away with a double top 10 result.

Reynolds was running strongly in Saturday night's Race one until a transaxle cooler split.

After a long stop to repair the damage, he crossed the line to finish 24th, 13 laps down.

Sunday's race looked over after just half a lap when he got tangled up with Tickford's Thomas Randle and BJR's Macauley Jones.

The incident ripped the front tyre off Reynold's Mustang, resulting a painfully slow drive back to the pits. But another typical Reynolds come back drive saw him finish 9th .

"I probably should have finished higher up. We had obviously a big drama at the start, which I nearly went a lap down. So we came in and fixed that tyre and they put me out in front of the leaders - the leaders were just behind me and I drove away and was thinking, 'my car is amazing'. Then the way it all worked out, we ended up ninth which is not so bad, it's a reasonable recovery." Reynolds said

The takeaway for the Albury born racer was the pace of his car compared to last year

"That first part of the race on Sunday, my car was very fast and I was very happy with that until I sort of got into traffic and that sort of stuffed up everything. I was around people who were on probably better tyres at times and then obviously it rained at the end and there was heaps of drama going on - very, very sketchy at the end there but a lot of fun. When you look back at it, laying it on the line, I lived through that experience and that was fun.

"We have come a long way since last year. Like, last year we struggled to finish inside the 15 and at times today we were comfortably the fastest car, so it just goes to show.

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