No curse on Townsville track, insists Macauley Jones
The heir to an Australian motorsport dynasty doesn’t believe in curses, which is fortunate because Supercars driver Macauley Jones’ record on Reid Park is downright rotten.
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THE heir to an Australian motorsport dynasty doesn’t believe in curses, which is fortunate because Macauley Jones’ record on Reid Park is downright rotten.
In his last 11 starts in Townsville the son of Supercars legend Brad Jones has failed to finish four times.
Over his four year Supercars career Jones has failed to finish 10 times in total, with no other track featuring more than once.
In 2020 Jones was embroiled in a crash on turn two that ruled him out of Townsville’s opening race.
In last year’s SuperSprint he was clipped at the first corner of race one, puncturing a hole in his radiator.
The issue compounded into engine trouble and a clutch failure in races two and three.
Unlucky? Sure, but Jones insisted neither he nor the Reid Park circuit were cursed upon his arrival in north Queensland on Wednesday.
“Definitely not,” said Jones, 27.
“It’s just one of those things. Obviously I’ve had a few DNFs (Did Not Finish) in the past but I never think anything is cursed.
“It’s water off a duck’s back, almost, and a lot has happened since then.”
Jones said he had carefully studied Townsville’s treacherous opening corner to avoid his fifth DNF in two years at Reid Park – a track no Brad Jones Racing team driver has ever conquered.
“That first corner, everyone is trying to get there first. You never know whether someone is going to zig or zag,” Jones said.
“It’s a concrete jungle that you’re heading out to at 270km/h into almost a blind corner with concrete walls. When you break you need to need to be hitting it as hard as you can.”
MACAULEY JONES TOWNSVILLE RECORD
2020 Townsville 500
Race 1: Did Not Finish
Race 2: 18th
Race 3: 21st
2020 Townsville SuperSprint
Race 1: 19th
Race 2: 18th
Race 3: 19th
2021 Townsville 500
Race 1: 16th
Race 2: 14th
2021 Townsville SuperSprint
Race 1: Did Not Finish
Race 2: Did Not Finish
Race 3: Did Not Finish
Hundreds cheer on Supercars Transporter parade
SUPERCAR fever has taken hold in Townsville, with hundreds of locals lining the city’s streets on Wednesday to wave and cheer on the annual parade of horn-blasting Supercars teams’ B-double transporters.
The parade travelled from Webb Drive at the Bohle, taking a right turn down Ingham road, then Shaw Road, along the Ring Road, before starting the fanfare along Hervey Range Road, Ross River Road and Charters Towers Road, before finishing at Reid Park.
Local residents Samantha Butterworth, Kathy Turner, and Hunter Coleman, 5, were among the large crowd gathered in front of the Willows Shopping Centre when the parade worked its way past just before 12.30pm.
Given that his dad drove a Kenworth truck, it was a big buzz for Hunter to see the massive Kenworth trucks roll past during his first Supercars Transporter parade.
As the proud owner of an impressive matchbox car collection, he was particularly excited to see a truck roll past adorned with familiar Hot Wheels branding.
Ms Turner and Ms Butterworth said they had been regular attendees of the parades.
“I love the colours, they are always schmick, and there’s always different ones each year,” Ms Turner said.
“I remember the parade that had Lightning McQueen and this one, we had a Hot Wheels.”
Ms Butterworth said she was still working on getting Hunter to support Holden.
“I love the Supercars. I probably won’t make it this year because I’ve got other things going on but my son lives nearby so I can go and just sit there and listen,” she said.
The 2022 NTI Townsville 500 will run this weekend from July 8 -10.
Tickets are available through Ticketek.
GET CAUGHT UP WITH OUR FAST FACTS:
1. Three teams – Triple Eight Race Engineering, Dick Johnson Racing (as DJR Team Penske) and Tickford Racing – have proven to be the dominant teams in Townsville. Between them they’ve won the last 22 Townsville races in a row dating back to the 2014 event.
2. Seven-time champion Jamie Whincup’s record of 12 Townsville Supercars Championship race wins has a new challenger in Shane van Gisbergen. The Kiwi has won eight races in Townsville.
3. Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert is still chasing his first race win in Townsville. He’s finished on the podium six times there before – the most podium results at the track of any driver that has not yet won a race. Mostert has scored one second place (2020) and five third-placed finishes (one in 2019, two in 2020, two in 2021).
4. Will Davison and James Courtney start their 227th Supercars Championship round when they line up in Townsville. It moves them past 1995 champion John Bowe and they’ll now sit equal ninth on the all-time championship round starts list.
5. Ford drivers have taken 14 of the 18 ARMOUR ALL Pole Positions that have been on offer so far this season. However, they’ve won just five of those 18 races held in 2022. Recent trends have been better though as Mustangs have won four of the last six races in this year’s championship.
6. Only three drivers on the 2022 Townsville grid have competed in every Supercars race held on the Reid Park circuit since it debuted on the calendar in 2009 – Mark Winterbottom, Shane van Gisbergen and James Courtney have competed in all 34 races. Fabian Coulthard and Jamie Whincup have also competed in all 34 races held so far but won’t be on the grid this year.
7. The Sunday race in Townsville will mark the 50th Supercars Championship race start for the Blanchard Racing Team. Last year its CoolDrive Mustang and driver Tim Slade finished sixth and eighth in the pair of races that made up the Townsville 500.
8. The last seven 1-2 Townsville finishes (in 2016, 2018 x 2, 2020, 2021 x 3) have been achieved by Triple Eight. The last team other than Triple Eight to score a 1-2 finish in Townsville is Tickford Racing (then known as Prodrive Racing Australia) in 2015, with Mark Winterbottom leading home David Reynolds.
9. 10 of the 34 races held in Townsville have been won by the car starting on pole position. Nine of the last 11 races there have been won by the pole-sitter.
10. The Safety Car has appeared in 18 of the 34 races held in Townsville and in 11 of the 18 Sunday races at the event. There have been three rounds – 2017, the first round in 2020 and the 2021 ‘500 – in Townsville without the Safety Car making at least one appearance in one of the races.
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Originally published as No curse on Townsville track, insists Macauley Jones
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