Brad Jones Racing driver Jason Bright has achieved plenty of success at Winton, including four race wins and two pole positions. He also holds the current race lap record, set in 2014. So who better to take us on a hot lap of the nation’s action track?
Turn 1-2
You’re in fifth gear heading into Turn 1, usually hitting the limiter as you reach the end of the straight. It’s very important to keep the car tight on the exit so you have to be very accurate on the entry, using a little kerb but not too much.
If you’ve kept it tight into Turn 1, it’s a case of feeding the throttle on and trying to get a good run out of the right-hander, Turn 2, onto the old start-finish straight. In the race everyone is exploring the limits and using all of the road on the exit.
Turn 3
You shift back to third gear for Turn 3 and the track drops away on the inside, so it’s very easy to lock an inside-front wheel under brakes. You use all the road on the exit but try not to drop wheels off the road.
Turn 4
This is one of the more tricky corners, it’s a one-line corner because it’s quite banked on entry. It’s very easy to drop a wheel off on entry, like we saw with Chaz Mostert last year. It’s also important to stay off the kerb because it unsettles the car.
Turn 5
You shift up to fourth gear for Turn 5, the “sweeper”, and there are several different methods for going around the corner – some people rush in and wash off speed mid-corner, other drivers have a slower entry but carry more speed through the middle. It’s very important to stay on line because it gets very dirty off line during the race.
Turn 6-9
There’s a kink before braking into Turn 7 and it’s one of the most difficult braking zones we have in the series, because the car’s unsettled and you’re turning and braking all the way to the apex. The next left-hander, Turn 8, is well banked and it’s important to hug the inside all the way around to set yourself up for Turn 9, the last right-hander in that complex, which is again quite banked.
Right through this sequence of corners, you need a car that rotates well because it’s all about changing direction as nicely as possible.
Turn 10
You approach Turn 10 on the limiter in fourth gear, and brake nice and straight into the corner. You need to straighten the car up as quickly as possible and have good power-down on the exit.
Turn 11-12
This is the corner where you’re braking hardest, and the braking zone is a lot nicer now with a lot of the bumps being removed when the track was resurfaced. It’s a 90-degree corner but the exit opens up a lot and you can actually carry a lot of speed into Turn 12, which has been re-profiled with the resurfacing and is now a faster corner than before. It’s important to get good drive out of Turn 12 for the run back up to the start-finish line.
