Fujitsu Racing’s Jason Bright plans to take advantage of his new FG at more familiar venues later on in the month.
At the brand-new Townsville street circuit last weekend Bright debuted the ex-Shane van Gisbergen FG – which he mentioned that was not the best situation.
“It was always going to be hard going to a new circuit and debuting a new car,” he explained.
“Sandown at least is a circuit we have been to before.
“Having something to benchmark (the FG) with my experience at Sandown is going to be a much bigger benefit.”
Despite the unfamiliarity of the new car, Bright showed good speed early in practice sessions at the Dunlop Townsville 400 last weekend and he was eighth fastest in the Sunday qualifying session.
It looked like Bright was in for a top 10 finish in the race on Sunday however it ended with Bright finishing a lap down when the Safety Car got called out.
“We were in the pits when the Safety Car came out and it put us down a lap,” he said.
“We certainly had the pace to run in the top six; that was the disappointing part.
“It just wasn’t to be, but I’m pretty confident we can run up there from now on.”
Bright said the change from BF to FG was one of the biggest steps he has ever felt in V8 Supercars.
“The way we’ve been building these newer generation cars has seen quite a change to how much lighter we can make them and therefore where you can put the weight (to reach the category-specified minimum weight).
“That means the FG just pitches less and rolls less and is much easier to control,” he said.
“It might take us a couple of rounds to get the most out of it, but I immediately feel a lot more competitive than I have been.”
Bright said podiums are not entirely out of the question even though it’s early days with the FG.
“I’ve been pretty confident (that) once we got hold of the FG that we could start a push for podiums and race wins,” he said.
Bright won the Sandown event when it was an endurance race in 2006 with Mark Winterbottom for Ford Performance Racing.
The Norton 360 Sandown Challenge takes place from July 31 to August 2.
