HI to all you V8 Supercars fans around the world!
Towards the end of the 2017 racing season Jason Bright announced his retirement from full time racing.
In this article we look back at a magnificent career spanning 2 decades.
Jason Bright was born on the 3rd of March 1973 In Moe, Victoria.
At the age of 15 he started racing Go Karts and immediately won championships.
In 1992 Bright raced Go Karts doubling up efforts with his entry to the Victorian Formula Ford Championship.
The following year saw him in the Australian Formula Ford Championship.
He was winning races and championships left right and centre.
Jason started full time touring car driver in 1998. The only year that Jason didn’t race in fulltime was 2000 because he was racing in Indy Lights. He has racked up a phenomenal 572 starts in V8 Supercars races.
In that first 2 years of racing under the Stone Brothers Racing Team he did extremely well and with co-driver Steven Richards won the Bathurst Classic.
The year 2000 was big for Bright. His ended his contract with Stone Brothers Racing and joined Dick Johnson Racing but also entered the Indy Lights, Champcar World Series, Shell Championship Series and the American Le Mans Series.
From 2001 onwards he held 2 year contracts following each other with Holden Racing Team, Paul Weel Racing and Ford Performance Racing(FPR). I am sure one of his career highlights was 2003 in the Bathurst 24 Hour, co-driving with Peter Brock, Greg Murphy and Todd Kelly. With a team like that of course they came in first.
Jason Bright does like to keep busy because in the meantime (2005) he established his own V8 Supercars team, Britek Motorsports with Fujitsu Racing as their main sponsor. He was so busy (and under contract) that he didn’t even have time to race in his own team until 2 years later. So for 2007 – 2009 Jason got to race in his own team. For a number of reasons Britek Motorsports was absorbed into Brad Jones Racing in 2009. He then joined Brad Jones Racing for the 2010 season and stayed with them until 2016.
He signed up with Prodrive racing Australia in 2017 when he felt it was time to hang the helmet up fulltime. He has confirmed he will be doing the Enduro races in 2018.
There are way too many career highlights and statistics to list but here are a selected few thrown in with a few lows:
· 1998 Bathurst Winner
· 1999 Darwin Round Winner.
· 2001 Clipsal winner.
· Winton 1st 2002
· Barbagallo 1st 2002
· Best championship finish was back in 2002
· 1st 2003 Albert park race 1
· 2006 Sandown winner.
· 2005 Jason Bright started his own race team, Britek Motorsports
· DNF’S Bathurst 2006 2007
· Abu Dhabi 2nd 2011 race 2
· 1st Barbagallo 2011
· 2014 he had a bad crash
· Started a total of 17 races in pole position two of which were 2011 at Barbagallo raceway and 2009 at Phillip island
· 20 race wins and 88 podium finishes
· Competed in 572 V8 Supercars Championship races
Some of his co-drivers have been:
· Mark Winterbottom
· Mark Skaife
· Thomas Mazera
· Paul Weel
· David Brabham
· Adam Macrow
· Matt Halliday
· Andrew Jones
· Garry Jacobson
Jason Bright’s co drivers for the 1997 Primus 1000 classic was Allan Jones and Scott Preutt. They were driving car number 9.
Jason Bright also raced at the Le man 24 hours back in 2013.
To have a 20 year career is just fantastic in the sport of racing and to have such phenomenal career is even more unusual.
Well-Done Jason Bright! Enjoy your retirement from full time racing (knew you couldn’t go cold turkey and will be glad to see you in the Enduro races).
Enjoy your next chapter in your life what ever that may hold.