BJR tipped to fire with new Toyota, three car operation

A new car, new driver and shift to running three entries offers Toyota-bound Brad Jones Racing a "chance to have a bit of a reset," says Andre Heimgartner.

After six seasons running a four-car operation, BJR has downscaled to three cars for 2026 after the SCT Motorsport license shifted to Triple Eight Race Engineering, with car builds accelerating in recent weeks.

The exit of the SCT entry means BJR can pour its efforts into three entries for the first time since 2019, when Nick Percat and Tim Slade raced the primary entries, and Macauley Jones steered the leased Blanchard-owned license.

Heimgartner and Jones return, offering stability in the driver ranks, while Cameron Hill arrives off the back of a career-best season with Matt Stone Racing.

While unknowns remain over the competitiveness of the new GR Supra, Heimgartner insisted the changes give the Albury squad an opportunity to "come together as a team and all head in one direction."

“The restructure for our team is exciting. We've seen other teams in the past go down in numbers and it sort of helps,” Heimgartner told Supercars.com.

"With Cam Hill coming onboard, it's a fresh start to mould the team in a different direction and try and achieve things that are hard to achieve in this sport.

"It's also a chance to have a bit of a reset and see if we can really try and come together as a team and all head in one direction. Everyone's pretty excited.”

Key for team owner Brad Jones was retaining core staff, despite the race car fleet shrinking from four to three.

"Brad's very good like that. He’s very loyal to his people,” said Heimgartner, who was impressed after his first drive of the Supra last week.

“From the start, Brad said, 'look, this won't be a massive culling thing where we’re trying to end up with half the amount of staff we did before’. 

“Brad's done a really good job of restructuring. Everyone’s adapting and finding new roles. Now we're trying to make it all work within the new lay of the land."

BJR's best season to date, in 2013, was centred on a three-car program: the team's two primary entries for Fabian Coulthard and Jason Bright, and the Britek license raced by David Wall. That year, BJR won five races and finished third in the teams' championship.

While the team matched it in 2023 with a finish of third, BJR went winless. In fact, the team has just one win in the last five seasons, coming at the hands of Heimgartner in New Zealand two years ago.

For Heimgartner, despite seeing engineer Tony Woodward depart for Blanchard Racing Team, the changes are coming at a good time, given the team's hot finish to 2025.

The Kiwi claimed a podium on the Gold Coast, and was ranked seventh on points across the last three rounds. Macauley Jones, meanwhile, impressed to sixth in the Adelaide Sunday Shootout.

“The new car obviously mixes things up a lot, but I feel like we found our mojo a bit more towards the end of last year,” Heimgartner said.

“Even Macauley, he qualified sixth in Adelaide and was in front of me, so he was doing a better and better job as the year went on.

"I think we're going to be stronger across the board this year, which is great."