Bright hoping to claw back - 23rd October 2014

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Jason Bright is looking to ward off the danger of the treacherous Gold Coast circuit with an X-Men themed livery for this weekend’s V8 Supercars event.

Bright – who’s car struck disaster at the circuit last year – is looking to get his endurance campaign back on-track at the Castrol EDGE Gold Coast 600, after he, co-driver Andrew Jones and the team were unable to maximise good speed at Bathurst.

“I was really happy with the pace we had at Bathurst – it should have been a much better race meeting for us,” Bright said.

“Obviously we had an accident there early in the race which put us out of contention early in the day, but I feel like we’ve got all the ingredients we need – we’ve got good power now and fast cars.

“So we’ve just got to not make mistakes like we did at Bathurst and at the end of the day we should be somewhere near the front.”

Bright and Jones finished the race 14th and while there was damage to his Holden Commodore during the 1000km classic, fortunately for his crew there were no extensive repairs were required in the short turnaround to this weekend’s Castrol EDGE Gold Coast 600.

Last year at the event, Jones suffered from a high impact hit during practice, the team having to work around the clock to repair the damage and get the Commodore back out for the second race of the weekend.

However, Bright is not concerned about his co-driver’s ability to bounce back and get behind the wheel at the circuit that hurt him in 2013.

“We all have incidents like that and you get back to the track a year later and it’s not really on your mind,” Bright said.

“His pace was fine at Sandown and Bathurst.”

This year, tyre bundles have been installed at turns one, nine and 10 to prevent overuse of kerbs at those corners.

“Turn one, I think this year has been changed quite a bit. I think what caught him [Jones] out last year was [that] everyone was straight lining the first part and you have to get used to how to hit that second part – whereas this year the track has been changed down there. Hopefully it will tidy up the way you attack that corner now."

It just added to Bright’s record at the Gold Coast, where he has only scored one career podium and never won.

“This has been a tough track for me over the years – I’ve had one podium here over the years and I’ve had some reasonable speed here at times, but it’s been one of my tougher tracks, so hopefully we can get the BOC Commodore up there this weekend and snag a podium.”

Bright was hoping the X-Men theme would wield some magic this weekend.

“I’m lucky enough to carry Wolverine on the roof there, good for all the fans up in the tall buildings.

“It’s good to see that Sony Pictures have recognised V8 Supercars as an opportunity to promote the release… Bit of a privilege to have it on the car this weekend and I hope I can call Hugh Jackman for some tips on the track this weekend – I’ll dig out his number! But it should be a good weekend.”

Look out for the X-Men V8 Supercar bringing mutant power to the Castrol Edge Gold Coast 600 this weekend, celebrating the launch of X-Men: Days of Future Past on Blu-ray and DVD.

We are also offering you the chance to WIN a copy of X-Men: Days of Future Past – click here for the competition.

(V8 Supercars)