A very hard weekend for us, says Bright.

Fujitsu Racing's Jason Bright has endured a challenging weekend at round three of the 2007 V8 Supercar Championship Series at Pukekohe Raceway south of Auckland.

After being forced to switch chassis before the event after a heavy accident during practice at the previous round in Western Australia, Bright was on the back foot from the outset in NZ.

Bright missed nearly the first half of the practice session on Friday as the team chased a steering problem. This problem was rectified, but the Fujitsu Racing Team did not get through its full program of adjustments throughout the session.

Bright qualified 18th for the opening race, but was forced to the pits on lap #14 after the engine cut out.

Race #2 was the highlight with a strong drive earning him 16th place, just one place out of the points. Although a throttle issue meant he only had 90 per cent of full use by the end of the race.

Despite the work of the Fujitsu Racing Team the same issue came back in race #3. This time the car only had 80 per cent throttle by the end of the race and he finished in 25th position.

"A very hard weekend for us," said Bright. "At least we have a straight car; the same can not be said for a lot of our competitors. We were just chasing things all weekend and that made it very difficult.

"I can't fault the effort of the crew, they had massive task since Perth to get us here and we had a few things go against us. The next event is at our test track at Winton in Victoria and we will aim to start fresh at that event. We have scheduled a test before that event to give us the best chance of a strong result."

Chief engineer Geoff Slater has already put Pukekohe behind him: "It was the last race for the V8s at Pukekohe and after our weekend we are looking forward to the street race in Hamilton next year," said Slater.

"We were pretty happy with the chassis, but obviously other things got in the way of showing that potential. We can't wait to get to Winton. It's a track we know extremely well and for us it's like a local race. The idea of testing before that race is also a bonus."