BRAD Jones Racing’s decision to slot Jaxon Evans into its SCT Camaro is already paying dividends.
Based overseas for five years as Porsche pro, Evans moved back to Australia to embark on a full-time Supercars career following Jack Smith’s retirement at the end of last season.
A question mark had hovered around what would be achievable out of the second BJR garage, given top 10s have been few and far between for its third and fourth cars.
In fact, Dale Wood was the last BJR driver from outside its lead two entries to score a podium, in 2014.
But Evans was confident the pieces had been put in place to have a fair crack at success, and the early signs have been promising.
Amid a wider BJR struggle at the opening two rounds, Evans at least matched up reasonably against his teammates.
Then, capitalising on a rookie test and uncharted territory at Taupō, he climbed up the pecking order.
Evans was eighth in practice, 10th in a wet and wild Race 1, and 14th in Race 2.
They’re not the kind of results that get a driver of his calibre necessarily jumping for joy, but enough to show that by Round 3 of his solo career, he very much belongs.
In fact, the 141 points Evans collected from Taupō represents the most productive round in the history of the SCT entry.
The previous benchmark, in 52 rounds across 2019-23, had been the 113 points Smith accumulated across last year’s Sydney SuperNight.
Evans continues to be the highest-placed rookie in the championship, ahead of Ryan Wood and Aaron Love, and is also above BJR stablemates Bryce Fullwood and Macauley Jones.
His next challenge will come at Wanneroo Raceway, where Evans does have recent laps aboard the Arise Racing Ferrari he’s campaigning in GT World Challenge Australia.
