Smash wrecks Bright's Championship hopes
9/11/2004 19:18 (Press Release) -
Jason Bright’s championship bid has been effectively snuffed out in a sickening crash on the streets of Surfers Paradise after contact with opponent Rick Kelly fired the PWR Racing #50 Commodore into a concrete wall.
Bright was checked for concussion following the smash and cleared, but the car is expected to be declared a write-off requiring full reconstruction.
Teammate Paul Weel also had a difficult weekend, several incidents in Saturday’s first race effectively relegating him to the rear of the field for Race 2, from which he managed to salvage a 16th-place finish.
Bright, meanwhile, can only revive his championship hopes with a DNF from championship leader Marcos Ambrose in one of the two remaining rounds, trailing by 166 points with only 192 points available at each round.
The incident happened towards the end of the second of two races on the unforgiving, concrete-encased circuit, with Bright on his way to a handy points haul that would have kept him well in touch with Ambrose.
Kelly, from Kmart Racing, nudged the rear of Bright’s car as he entered the esses at the end of the back straight, firing Bright into the wall at an estimated 140km/h. Following the race, Kelly apologized unreservedly to Bright and PWR Racing team owner Kees Weel for his error.
Kees Weel was upset following the incident, but declined to blame the Kmart Racing team. “It’s not our day, obviously,” he said. “We’re not having a go at anyone else about it, racing’s like that. We’re just going to focus on getting our cars ready now for the next round in Tasmania.”
After receiving medical clearance, Bright said he still wasn’t sure what had happened. “I didn’t really see it, but I knew it was going to be a big hit when he hit me,” he said. “I’m pretty happy that Holden supplied us with a HANS device (head and neck imobiliser) because that’s probably made a big difference.
“The car is pretty bad, we don’t know just how bad yet but there going to be a lot of work to do.
“Rick’s been to see me and apologized, so there’s no malice, things happen.
“Championship-wise we’re definitely in jeopardy, but what this means is that we can be pretty aggressive from here on and just maybe things might still fall our way.”
Kees Weel added his own thoughts to the championship battle. “It’s not over until the fat lady sings, but I think she’s starting to hum a little at the moment.”
Paul Weel, meanwhile, said finishing 16th after starting from 29th in Race 2 on a circuit where passing is very difficult had been some consolation on a difficult weekend.
“The car still wasn’t as fast as we wanted, but we’ve had a pretty good day considering where we started,” he said. “The car has come back fairly straight and hopefully we haven’t lost too much on our championship rivals.”
The next round of the V8 Supercar Championship will be at Tasmania’s Symmons Plains from November 12-14.
Release Date: 24/10/2004
PWR Racing
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