BJR dealt devastating double blow
14/8/2004 15:04 (Press Release) -
Both BJR drivers have had podium finishes torn away from them in cruel circumstances at round 7 of the 2004 V8 Supercar Championship at Winton Raceway. At two thirds race distance, John Bowe looked to have a certain top three result in the bag. Setting the fastest lap of the race and pressuring the small group of cars in front of him, he was in control.
In an overtaking move on championship leader Marcos Ambrose to take third position, in was deemed that Bowe’s move was illegal and was given a drive through penalty. Bowe eventually finishing 18th.
“I haven’t had chance to look at the vision on my move on Marcos [Ambrose] and until then, I’m going to reserve my judgement. All I know is that what happened at the end of the race meant that I could well have won and that’s a tough pill to swallow,” said Bowe.
“It makes you wonder if there’s any point in driving aggressively. Maybe there’s more sense to being conservative,” Bowe concluded.
Where team mate Bowe dropped off, Brad Jones took over. Gambling on an early pit stop for fuel and an additional stop for fresh tyres, it looked to be a master stroke. With just six laps remaining, Jones was on track to take BJR’s first podium result for 2004 but running low on petrol, his OzEmail Falcon’s fuel system surged. Subsequently the last remaining litres that were needed to cross the finish line, could not be picked up, rendering Jones’ car virtually inoperable.
Jones was forced to sit in the infield until the last lap of the race, where he managed to roll over the line in 24th position.
“I cannot believe what happened today. We had done everything right and I really felt like I have driven the wheels off my OzEmail Falcon to be in the position that we were,” said a bitterly disappointed Jones.
“In the end it was a certain podium finish that was ripped off me. Even if we tried, we could never repeat the same thing [fuel surge] that happened to the car. It just doesn’t seem fair,” he concluded.
BJR will take a lot way from the activities at Winton. Both Falcon’s proved their speed with Bowe’s fastest race lap and Jones’ competitive effort. All efforts and hopefully lady luck will be focussed on the next outing in three weeks time at Sydney’s Oran Park Raceway.
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