Macauley-Jones. Image: Mark Horsburgh
Macauley Jones has officially confirmed his place on the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship grid where he will take some significant advances.
While the spotlight on the quadruple Sydney Motorsport Park title was mostly focused on the usual suspects, there were plenty of subtle storylines to consider.
Among them was Jones.
The third year lead rider is the first to admit that his overall progress has been slower than desired, but his one-lap performances have been significantly better all year round.
He added another three starting spots in the front half of the grid at SMP, increasing his number to eight for 2021. To put that in perspective: Brad Jones Racing’s respected team-mate Todd Hazelwood qualified no better than 15 by the 16th race of the season.
The criticism remained that even if Jones qualified well, he would be quickly pushed back in racing trim. Aside from occasions where he qualified 24th or below, Jones hadn’t finished a better race this year than he had started before the middle of the season.
He wanted to change that when the championship resumed at the end of last month.
Aside from race 29 last Saturday when he suffered an engine failure, Jones improved his starting position in seven of nine SMP races and held that position in another.
The turning point makes him optimistic about what the future will bring. The 27-year-old told Speedcafe.com that he was “100 percent” with BJR for the 2022 season.
This assurance completes BJR’s roster for next year, with incumbents Jones and Jack Smith – whose father Peter has verbally confirmed that this will be the status quo with their Racing Entitlements Contract – with recruits Andre Heimgartner and Bryce Fullwood .
Jones is excited to see what he can achieve after exiting SMP with a jump in his crotch.
“We had some ups and downs with our qualifying results … but I think the key to success for me was to at least move forward in all races regardless of where we qualified, so that was really good,” he told Speedcafe . com.
“Our tire management was really good and there was a lot of focus in this three-month hiatus to keep advancing in the races and that was definitely one of our strengths.”
The # 96 Coca-Cola ZB Commodore. Image: Mark Horsburgh
When asked how the pause was used to create such an effect, Jones added, “I think it was a bit of a rethink.
“I worked a bit more with a sports psychologist over the course of the year and it was just a good opportunity to reset a few races that we had and look back and see what I needed to improve.
“Sometimes when you’re fully into the season it’s hard to look back on all those hours of footage, so it was a good chance to go back and restructure with my engineer [Tom Wettenhall] as.”
And the more Jones moves away from the bottom of the field, the more he feels he belongs to the top group.
“I don’t want to be in the back. I work damn hard behind the scenes to move forward, ”he said.
“It probably took me a little longer than I really wanted – I mean, I’m here in the workshop every day, working pretty closely with the team and with the store, and learning a lot about the background behind the scenes.
“I want to be at the forefront. I just have to keep going to get better and build the skills.
“I have the feeling that we are definitely getting closer to that and the consistency will definitely be a little better.
“I think I kind of treat it, those last four rounds to learn as much as possible, build on what we have and move back to the next year.
“I’ve had too many DNFs this year to memorize championship points – after the weekend in Townsville, and I also had three DNFs from motor drama so that will never help the points. ”
Seven DNFs have relegated Jones to 23rd place in the championship with only one outstanding event: the Repco Bathurst 1000 next month, where he will team up with Chris Pither.
With Jones locked up, there is only one place left in the 2022 Supercars Championship – the vacancy at Grove Racing that kiwi teenager Matthew Payne is slated to play until the super license is released.
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