Fullwood once again proves BJR's enduro expert

Bryce Fullwood will arrive in Bathurst full of confidence after a supreme Sandown top 10, having reaffirmed himself as Brad Jones Racing's star enduro performer.

The Darwin-born driver, who headed to Sandown off the back of his first podium in BJR colours, raced to ninth alongside Jaylyn Robotham.

It was yet another underrated enduro performance by Fullwood, who has a knack of pulling a rabbit of a hat in Supercars' longest races.

Fullwood, whose final race with Walkinshaw Andretti United was a Bathurst 1000 top five in 2021, has been the lead BJR driver in enduros in three of four races since joining the team in 2022.

Andre Heimgartner's fifth place finish at Sandown last year was the only time Fullwood wasn't lead BJR driver in an enduro since 2022.

At the 2022 Great Race, Fullwood and Dean Fiore powered from 24th to ninth. At Sandown last year, they went from 24th to 11th, before racing from 21st to seventh at Mount Panorama. Come last weekend, Fullwood and Robotham went from 23rd to ninth.

"What a whirlwind. I think we passed 13 cars or something close to that. That’s basically half the field so pretty happy with that,” Fullwood said.

"Jay did a good job in the car. I feel like we struggled a little bit with our car this weekend and we didn't know how much to chase it going into the race.

"Ultimately, I think the car was actually quite good in the end. The boys back in the pits here did a really, really good job of the strategy.

"With 40 laps to go I was last, and I'm still not really sure how I ended up where I have so the guys here in the bunker have done an awesome job.

"I can't wait to roll on to Bathurst with Jay and the team to hopefully get some good results there too.”

Heading to Bathurst, Fullwood is 164 points behind Heimgartner, who finished 11th at Sandown with Declan Fraser.

Robotham, who was making just his second Sandown 500 start, is hoping Fullwood can get the car towards the front in qualifying in Bathurst.

"Some guys were getting a bit keen early on and burned the tyres out trying to make passes,” said Robotham, who is racing in Asia.

"But I just tried keeping it as straight as possible and drove. I think I did a good job keeping the tyre on. I got hit a couple times which hurt our speed a little bit with the tyres.

"I handed back over to Bryce and the Safety Car came at the wrong time. It wasn’t looking like we were going to move up too many spots and then it kind of all worked out well.

"Really happy overall and hoping we can qualify further up the grid in Bathurst and keep the good race pace.”

Fullwood and Robotham will return at the Repco Bathurst 1000 on October 10-13.