Burning questions: Brad Jones

After several stable and successful seasons it was an eventful summer of change for Brad Jones Racing, with gun driver Fabian Coulthard and his crack engineer Phil Keed departing for DJR Team Penske. At the same time former Dunlop Series champion Dale Wood and his loyal group of sponsors made the shift from the team’s third entry to Nissan Motorsport.

Stepping in to the Freightliner Racing Holden Commodore VF was Tim Slade, a driver of undoubted talent but burdened with three consecutive seasons of struggle at Erebus Motorsport and Walkinshaw Racing, while Tim Blanchard moved from Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport to drive the #21.

The one constant in the driver line-up was veteran Jason Bright, lining up in the Team BOC Commodore for season number seven at BJR.

Along with driver shuffles came changes in the Andrew Edwards-led engineering team; Julian Stannard linked with Slade and Tim Blanchard joined with the team’s newest engineer and its longest serving – Tony Woodward and Wally Storey. Bright continued with Paul Scalzo.

Slade’s year got off to a slow start but as he and the team adjusted to each other so the pace came. His ARMOR ALL Pole Position and double breakthrough at Winton the highlight of BJR’s year so far. Bright and Blanchard have struggled by comparison.

Drivers' Championship: Tim Slade – 8th; Jason Bright – 15th; Tim Blanchard – 22nd.

Teams' Championship: Team BOC and Freightliner Racing – 4th; Team Cooldrive – 16th.

Standout moment this season: Tim Slade’s utter dominance of the Woodstock Winton SuperSprint netted him his first two wins in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. He has followed up with a podium in Darwin for his new team and shapes as a constant in the top 10.

VASC: How would you rate your year so far?

BJ: I think it’s been okay. We obviously went through a big change in the off-season and that shakes things up a bit and has taken a while to settle. The first quarter of the year was pretty tough but since then Tim has won a couple of races, been on the podium and posted a couple of other top 10s so that’s been okay.

The obvious change at BJR has been the departure of Fabian Coulthard and Phil Keed, but you have made some really significant changes to the engineering structure and processes as well haven’t you?

There was a shake-up last year when Andrew Edwards stepped away from running a car and then all the crews changed again this year to cover the loss of Phil Keed. This is a bigger shake-up but it has worked out quite well.

Phil was one of the most experienced engineers in that senior group and he left a pretty big gap to fill but the guys have made it seem seamless. We get to July and we have won a couple of races and we are back at the point where we are capable of fighting for podiums so the engineers have stepped up and done a great job.

You’ve recently announced deals with the US engineering consultancy Pratt & Miller and the installation of a chassis dyno at the shop in Albury, moves which suggest you are pushing harder on the engineering side than ever before. True?

Our focus is to be a regular winner in the category so these are tools that are going to help us do that. In the past when we have done an IP (Intellectual Property) deal with Triple Eight for example we haven’t put a press release out about it, but when you have got commercial partners you do.

In the past we have done everything we can to become regular podium finishers and winners and we will do everything we can going forward to achieve that.

I have never really thought about whether we are trying harder or not. I like to think we are always trying hard. We are probably trying different things is more to the point. We are pioneering some of our own stuff which is a point of difference, but one of the things about BJR, like all race teams, is we are very focussed on success. That part of it hasn’t changed, but we are trying some different things, we are looking for speed and understanding, which is an important part of it. So it’s just to make the car go faster, it’s understanding what’s going on.

But does this mean you have to become more independent of engineering suppliers. That you can’t beat the supplier while you’re a customer?

I don’t agree with that statement. I think you can be a customer team and win. James Courtney only had a customer Triple Eight car and DJR beat Triple Eight. But that’s not really the road we are going down, we are doing a lot of our own stuff and we are looking for opportunities to learn and opportunities to verify exactly what we are doing and the two relationships you touched on are tools to do both those things.

On the FOX SPORTS telecast of the Coates Hire Ipswich SuperSprint Russell Ingall made the point BJR had won more races than the Holden Racing Team in the NewGen (Car of the Future) era. It also means you are the second most successful Holden team in the current era. Does that validate or verify the effort you are putting in?

I have never really looked into those numbers. You just try as hard as you can and you let the outcomes look after themselves.

Everyone in every race team focusses on doing the best they can and I can only really talk about what goes on here at BJR. We are a really tight group, really focussed on getting the job done.

Probably about this time last year we decided we had to change a couple of things on the car. We got to a point where we felt we had exhausted some of the ability within the car and so it’s like anything, when you change anything significant on the car it takes a while to get to understand it. Big change takes time.

I feel we have been through a bit of that this year and changing the driver and engineer on 14 is one of those things.

We are now out the other side of that a little bit. We have just come from a circuit (Queensland Raceway) where last year we really struggled and this year we were pretty competitive, so that’s a good sign.

Next we are coming up to two circuits we traditionally struggle at and I am really interested to get to those circuits and see how we go. We are also coming up to some circuits where we are very pretty fast and I am looking forward to them as well. Bathurst is one of them.

Rate Tim Slade’s year?

I think he has settled into the team very quickly. It was a struggle at the start but he is very good. He is a deep thinker; I think winning a couple of races has been a bit of a watershed moment for him. Whether you talk about it or don’t talk about it from my experience as a driver when you start winning in a particular category and being in the position where you can get on the podium regularly it helps you believe.

That goes through the whole team really. He is doing a really good job for us and I think we are in good spot with him.

What is this thing with you blokes at BJR plucking wounded birds and getting them to fly again?

Is that a serious question (laughs)? I study lots of driver stats and so does my crew here when we are looking for a new driver and we take a great deal of satisfaction and pride in what we achieve with drivers. The interesting thing about that is the people who pay most attention to that are drivers.

Most people don’t notice it but the people who notice it the most are the fellow competitors. They are the ones who talk to me about it and make mention of it more than anyone else.

Rate Jason Bright’s year?

Brighty started the year off in a flurry, there were top 10 results and that was really good. But we have stalled a bit from there. We have had some discussions over strategy and where we are at but I am really hoping we can get him back on track for the remainder of the year. We have some big races coming up and it’s important we have both cars in the top 10 because that affects where you park in pitlane every year.

He is still capable of doing the time, he jumped up in P3 at Ipswich so he can still do that. But he needs to do it on Saturdays and Sundays in the races.

Rate Tim Blanchard’s year?

For Tim it’s a new engineer and a different team and he is going through all the growing pains that Tim Slade went through. He is doing a really good job. Putting him with (engineers) Tony Woodward and Wally Storey, our newest engineer in the garage and someone who has been with us a long time and has enormous experience in the sport, has helped him adjust. It would be nice to get him to a point where he is a little more consistent but he fits in very well, he is a good guy and hopefully we can get him a bit further forward in the field.

You’ve already mentioned Bathurst and it wouldn’t be a discussion about BJR without asking you about Mount Panorama. You know Brighty and Andrew (Jones) will be thereabouts coming into the last hour of the race and Tim Slade and Ash Walsh look like they could be really strong. Are you getting excited?

In truth yes. But we will wait and see.