The 2024 Bathurst 1000 proved a promising campaign for SCT Motorsport’s Jaxon Evans, despite throwing up some challenges.
In his third attempt in the Great Race, and his first as his first as a main driver, Evans demonstrated signs of clicking with the Brad Jones Racing-run Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 as he teamed with the experienced Dean Fiore in one of the toughest and fastest races yet.
The event dipped under the six hour mark for the first time and 19 of the 25 finishers completed the full race distance, while only one safety car period occurred during the 1000km encounter.
Mileage isn’t a problem at the 1000 with six practice sessions including two for co-drivers only in addition to qualifying, the Top 10 Shootout and main event.
Great pace was displayed throughout the practice windows, including Evans ending up fifth in the fourth session of the weekend before qualifying in 15th and just 0.146s away from a Top 10 Shootout – the small difference highlighting the closeness of the Supercars field.
Two further practice sessions occurred on Saturday morning where critical pit stop practice and race runs were completed in preparation for the biggest event on the Supercars calendar.
A triple stint at the end equating to nearly half the race proved a test for plenty of drivers, but Evans was able to put his endurance experience to good use and bring the SCT Motorsport Camaro home in 20th.
“It’s obviously been a big weekend saying this off the back of a triple stint to finish the race,” said Evans.
“I was really happy with how the weekend went, it was obviously not the race result we wanted, but I feel like there were some good signs during the event. I had some good car speed during practice, qualifying and even the race. Just things didn’t fall our way.
“I feel like I’m working with the team really well and I made some personal gains as well.”
“It was really hard to do a triple stint at the end. It’s a big ask. When you’re getting in at lap 83, you’ve only just passed halfway and you know you’re not getting out until the end. It was a tough race for everyone, it ran green for so long and on this hard tyre we’re pushing a little bit harder to extract the lap time rather than managing the tyre deg. Everyone was a bit more on the limit, you try to relax and you lose a lot of lap time.
“I think my previous experience in endurance racing helps. Last year’s 1000 I did a lot of driving, but I was in a lot of pain, so I’ve been fine tuning my seat and I had issues earlier in the year here with my foot as well as my leg going numb. We seem to have ironed those problems out.
“I didn’t think the hard tyre was too bad. It was a lot less deg, but it was still there that we had to deal with today. You’re driving at ten-tenths every lap, especially in qualifying and even in the race you roll off the throttle a little bit and lap time is lost to either the car in front or behind. Not sure if it made the racing better as it was still difficult to overtake for some reason, which I don’t know if it’s a tyre thing. If you got to the back of another car it was hard to follow closely and do anything with it.
“It certainly made things interesting in qualifying when everyone was trying to maximise. It felt like you were on the edge of the grip that was on offer, then you were over and Bathurst is a place you can’t afford to go over it.”
Evans will now switch the Camaro for a Ferrari as he continues his charge for a Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS title at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend before returning home to the Gold Coast for the penultimate round of his rookie Supercars Championship season on October 25-27.
