Engine temperatures ground Trading Post Racing to a halt today when Jason Bright had to retire from a strong sixth place after qualifying a season-best fourth.

Brighty survived several tricky situations during the 200km Townsville race, the most memorable of which was James Courtney running into team-mate Steve Johnson directly in front of him during the opening laps.

Bright was right on the bumper of Courtney at the time, almost being taken out himself, and has now called for the stewards to take action.

Qualifying for tomorrow’s race begins at 11am

Jason Bright
Trading Post Racing
“Courtney was just being an idiot and took out his own team-mate; I wouldn’t want to be in that team briefing! He just went into the back of Stevie at Turn One and if the stewards don’t penalize him there’s something wrong.

“We really struggled at the start of the race but the second stint was better and we made another change in that last pit stop which would have made us better again I’m sure. Unfortunately the cylinder head in the engine cracked; there was no warning, it just went sick that lap.”

Brad Jones
Team Co-Owner
“Really disappointing; we just can’t get a break at the moment. There’ll be an engine change tonight and the fact they’ve got the pace to qualify fourth is just an indication of the great job they’re doing. We’ve got two extremely strong cars at the moment. ”

Jason Bright V8 STATS
Current championship position:  19
Current championship points:  794
V8 Supercar Championship race starts: 343
Previous best Townsville qualifying: 8 (2009)
Previous best Townsville result: 16 (2009)

Sucrogen Townsville 400-V8 Supercar Championship
TOWNSVILLE STREET CIRCUIT
Races 15 Qualifying
01 Jamie Whincup, 888,1:13.3223*
02 Mark Winterbottom, FPR, +0.3138
03 Garth Tander, HRT, +0.5415
04 Jason Bright, Trading Post Racing, +0.5636
05 James Courtney, DJR, +0.5900
06 Steven Johnson, DJR, +0.6193
07 Fabian Coulthard, Walkinshaw Performance, +0.6848
08 Lee Holdsworth, GRM, +0.6926
09 Shane Van Gisbergen, SBR, +1.2025
10 Craig Lowndes, 888, +1.3394

25 Jason Richards, Team BOC, 1:14.2771

Sucrogen Townsville 400-V8 Supercar Championship
TOWNSVILLE STREET CIRCUIT
Races 15
01 Jamie Whincup, 888
02 Garth Tander, HRT
03 Mark Winterbottom, FPR
04 Lee Holdsworth, GRM
05 James Courtney, DJR
06 Russell Ingall, PMM
07 Jason Richards, Team BOC
08 Shane Van Gisbergen, SBR
09 Steve Richards, FPR
10 Paul Dumbrell, RNR
DNF Jason Bright, Trading Post Racing