Spirited drive but no trophy joy for Bright at Pukekohe

Despite a battling drive in the final race of the weekend, Team BOC's Jason Bright was unable to reclaim the Jason Richards Trophy at the ITM 500 in New Zealand today, finishing sixth in the 200km race.

Bright started the race weekend superbly, with a pole and win on Friday but after two disappointing races yesterday, Bright needed a podium result to stand any chance of defending the trophy he won last year.

Unfortunately the team's chances took a blow in qualifying, with setup issues relegating the Team BOC VF Commodore to 17th on the grid.

In the race, Bright fought his way through the field, gaining 11 spots from his qualifying position, finishing a fighting 6th.

It was a good run but not enough to reclaim the Jason Richards Trophy, which went to FPR's Mark Winterbottom who won the race from Volvo's Scott McLaughlin and team mate Chaz Mostert.

Jason Bright

"To be honest with the pace we had today we don't deserve to hold the JR Trophy. It was pretty disappointing. We qualified poorly again and we had a lot of work to do in the race. We had good pace on the first set of tyres and we had reasonable pace to get up where we did but it was a tough day. We really struggled with the car at the end there. Just wasn't an easy weekend. Unfortunately as the weekend's go on they just seem to get harder qualifying wise. It's been tough. We're very good on a green track, very good when it rains but when the track gets more grip it's much harder for us. The trophy couldn't go to a better guy than Frosty. We were great as team mates and of all the guys up there I'd rather see him take it than anyone else."

In the championship standings, Bright moves up to ninth on 592 points.

Team BOC