Jason Bright will join the team for the 2001 V8 Supercar season. The 27 year-old Victorian will drive the #2 HRT VX Commodore next year, along side Mark Skaife. The former Formula Ford and Formula Holden Champion returns to Australia after a season competing in the Indy Lights category in the United States, where he came sixth in the series in his debut year, including 5 podium finishes.
Born in Gippsland (Victoria), Bright began racing in karts in 1988 before progressing to Formula Ford, winning the Australian title in 1995. He had his first attempt at the US market the following year, finishing second in the US Formula Ford 2000 series, before coming back to Australia and taking second in the Formula Holden Series.
Jason backed up to win the Australian Drivers' Championship in '97 as well as make his V8 Supercar debut and in 1998, won the FAI 1000 at Bathurst with Steven Richards. This year Bright raced for Dorricott Racing in Indy Lights, concluding that series in sixth and also scored a one-off drive at the Indy Car Grand Prix on the Gold Coast. A conservative approach saw him running as high as fifth place before an involvement with someone else's accident, sidelined the car.
Although originally from Victoria, Jason has lived in Queensland for the past few years, but will return and base himself in Melbourne in the New Year, to prepare for the 2001 Shell Series with the Holden Racing Team.
