BRT 2024 season review: Growing pains and baptisms of fire
As 2024 winds down, Supercars.com is looking over all 11 teams and their performances in this year's Repco Supercars Championship, starting with Blanchard Racing Team.
The expansion from running a single car operation to running two cars in the Repco Supercars Championship is never an easy task, as Blanchard Racing Team found out the hard way this season.
That task was only made tougher by the decision to promote young West Aussie Aaron Love to the main game after a mixed bag in the Dunlop Super2 Series in 2023, highlighted by a win at Bathurst.
Whilst Love's talent is plain to see from his Carrera Cup exploits, there is a strong case to make that Tim Blanchard promoted him far too early, several incidents throughout the year.
2010 champion James Courtney showed the occasional flash of brilliance, especially on street circuits, but those glimpses were few and far between.
A revolving door of staff further complicated matters, with Raymond Lau starting the year as Courtney's race engineer before departing for Walkinshaw Andretti United.
One positive from the season was the performances of Aaron Cameron alongside Love in the enduros, completing an impressive triple stint at Bathurst and driving 10 more laps than the rookie for the race.
Blanchard Racing Team: 2024 season results and head-to-heads
Drivers' finish: James Courtney 21st, Aaron Love 24th
Teams' finish: 11th
Best result: 6th (James Courtney, Perth Race 9)
Qualifying head to head: James Courtney 17, Aaron Love 7
Race head to head: James Courtney 15, Aaron Love 9
What’s next in 2025?
Questions still remain surrounding BRT heading into 2025, namely will Love remain in the CoolDrive entry?
Whilst the 22-year-old is contracted for next year, the performances of his co-driver Cameron in both the enduros and Super2 turned a lot of heads, as evidenced by receiving this year's Mike Kable Young Gun Award.
Another consideration for Tim Blanchard is the impending retirement of Courtney, who will call it a day on his illustrious career at the conclusion of the 2025 season.
Stability among the driver line-up could be the way forward for a young team that could be making another big technical change for next season.
Much like Ford homologation team Dick Johnson Racing, BRT is rumoured to be making the switch to Erebus-built chassis, though how many cars they will receive if any remains to be seen.
Erebus chassis have proven to be one of if not the best Gen3 chassis, and Courtney has proven he can still mix it with the best on his day, so there could yet be one or two big performances on his farewell tour.
