Blanchard joins BJR for 2016

One of Brad Jones Racing’s biggest silly seasons yet is finalised today, with the driver of the #21 Holden Commodore confirmed.

Tim Blanchard will shift from Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport to steer the third car in the BJR stable for 2016, hoping to improve on his recent results and cement himself in the V8 Supercars Championship.

The 28-year old was voted the Mike Kable Young Gun of the year in 2010 after debuting in the Dunlop Series. In 2013 he stepped up to race with Dick Johnson Racing, co-drove the following year with Russell Ingall and stepped  back up to run full-time with the LDM team this season. 

A highlight was an eighth place finish with Karl Reindler this season at the Wilson Security Sandown 500 – the kind of results the third generation racer was hoping to build on.

“I’m pretty excited to join Brad Jones Racing next year, they are proven race winners and have a lot of history in racing,” Blanchard said.

“Working in a family team environment will be great. I think it will be well suited to my personality and the way I like to go racing, I think it will work really well. We’ve got a long family history in motorsport; same as the Jones family so being associated with a family team is good.”

Blanchard will join BJR stalwart Jason Bright and newly announced Tim Slade in the three-car group next year.

“Jason Bright has extensive experience in the sport and I was a teammate with Tim Slade in Formula Fords. I’ve got history with those guys and am looking forward to working with them again.”

Team boss Brad Jones believes Blanchard will be a good fit for the Albury-based team.

“I think Tim has a great racing pedigree, he is a third generation driver and his family has been around racing their whole life. I’m very excited that he is joining the team next year and I think he will fit in well with the team we have here,” Jones said. 

“Looking at Tim’s history he was a state and national karting champion, won the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2007, travelled to England and was the runner up in the Formula Ford Championship there.

“Tim has been improving all season with LDM and we are really looking forward to working with him to continue his progression up the grid in 2016.”