{"id":502784,"date":"2026-02-25T08:55:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T08:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/502784\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T08:55:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T08:55:15","slug":"supercars-news-brad-jones-hails-strong-toyota-start-despite-engine-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/502784\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: Brad Jones hails strong Toyota start despite engine failure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/BJR-Toyota-Supras.jpg\" alt=\"\u2018Very positive signs\u2019: Brad Jones hails strong Toyota start\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCam Hill and Macauley Jones on track in Sydney. Image: InSyde Media  <\/p>\n<p>Alll three BJR drivers finished inside the top 10 of Sunday\u2019s race \u2013 Cam Hill seventh, Andre Heimgartner ninth and Macauley Jones 10th.<\/p>\n<p>While they all came from deep in the field during a 200km contest that included rain and a safety car intervention, it was a huge reward for BJR\u2019s hard-working crew.<\/p>\n<p>The weekend had begun with Heimgartner <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/supercars-news-2026-sydney-500-toyota-supra-andre-heimgartner-bjr-walkinshaw-mostert-wood\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">leading the Toyota charge with eighth on Friday night<\/a>, before the <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/supercars-news-2026-sydney-500-toyota-supra-andre-heimgartner-engine-failure-change\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">R&amp;J Batteries entry suffered engine failure in Saturday\u2019s race.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Back at base following the Sydney 500, Jones reported his three Supras \u201cstood up pretty well\u201d to the rough-and-tumble Supercars action.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously we had the engine issue in Andre\u2019s car, and that engine\u2019s back at Walkinshaw, but the rest of the car, the panels and such, really happy with all that stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst race, [it\u2019s] baby steps, but to end up with three cars in the top 10 in the last race, Andre in the top 10 in the first race, exceeded my expectations for the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think there\u2019s still a lot for us to learn and grow into. We\u2019re three years behind really with the development, but very, very positive signs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019ll be interesting to see what happens when we get to the Grand Prix, but I\u2019m certainly excited to be going and doing another race in a week and a half.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/supercars-news-2026-sydney-500-monday-ride-day-walkinshaw-brad-jones-absent-explanation-comments\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018Need a rest\u2019: Toyota teams absent from Sydney ride day<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Toyota homologation team Walkinshaw TWG led the way for the Supras on Sunday, with Chaz Mostert fourth and Ryan Wood fifth.<\/p>\n<p>Wood left Sydney as the top Toyota in the standings in sixth ahead of Hill (ninth), Mostert (14th), Heimgartner (17th) and Jones (19th).<\/p>\n<p>Jones was also encouraged by the performance of his team\u2019s Super2 Series Holden Commodores across the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Brad Vaughan won the Saturday race and sits equal first in the standings with Sunday winner Lochie Dalton, while Matt Hillyer is ninth in points following his first outing with the team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were right in amongst a pile of Fords and Brad won us a race, second overall for the weekend,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMatt\u2019s new to the team and did an excellent job, so two very exciting young guys and great results.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d like to think as a team, we\u2019re gonna fight for the championship this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Supercars Championship continues at Albert Park on March 5-8, while the Super2 Series is on hiatus until the trip to Hidden Valley on June 19-21.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/285241\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/285241.gif\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cam Hill and Macauley Jones on track in Sydney. Image: InSyde Media Alll three BJR drivers finished inside&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[107506,64,63,42144,48504,107503,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-502784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-andre-heimgartner","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-brad-jones-racing","12":"tag-cam-hill","13":"tag-macauley-jones","14":"tag-motor","15":"tag-motor-sports","16":"tag-motosport","17":"tag-motosports","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}