Why Blanchard surge is more than just Triple Eight tech deal

Blanchard Racing Team may be operating from the Triple Eight set-up book, but the young Ford team is also reaping the benefits from a ground-up approach to 2026.

BRT has been one of the stories of the 2026 campaign, with recruit James Golding claiming a first-up pole in Sydney before the team converted to a brilliant double podium.

While Golding and Aaron Cameron have suffered a series of blows throughout the first two rounds, it's clear BRT has turned a corner, in what is the team's first year of a new technical alliance with Triple Eight.

The deal gives BRT access to set-ups and data from Triple Eight. BRT is now the only customer of Triple Eight, which under its former Camaro guise, previously had deals with Brad Jones Racing, PremiAir Racing and Matt Stone Racing last year.

BRT struck up a technical deal with Walkinshaw Andretti United (now Walkinshaw TWG Racing) last year, and immediately saw an upswing in results following a woeful start to 2025 that was punctuated by last-row lockouts in Taupō.

BRT, though, made its own moves to sharpen up ahead of 2026. Notably, it recruited long-time Brad Jones Racing engineer Tony Woodward — who is no stranger to Triple Eight data — while veteran crew chief Dennis Huijser oversaw rebuilds of both Mustangs.

For BRT, it's the effort from within its own four walls that is paying the biggest dividends, despite the obvious links to powerhouse Triple Eight.

“The Triple Eight deal is no different to the previous customer relationships that they’ve had with the other Chev teams,” BRT Team Manager Kate Harrington told Supercars.com.

“From that side of it, we've got Tony onboard this year, which has also helped bolster our engineering department. We were pretty lean on last year within the engineering department.

“Tony had also done the Triple Eight thing with BJR, so I think if we had gone into this year and no one had had that experience of working and doing it the way they do things, it would impact how we operate at the moment."

The improvement shouldn't have been a big surprise, even if the results were. Per Supercars data analyst Scott Sinclair, BRT were ranked first for race pace improvement last year, meaning they improved their speed across the season more than any other team.

When asked what the key ingredients were to BRT's big leap, Harrington explained: “It's the first time we've had the same crew going into the second season. When that happens, you're not learning processes, procedures, everyone's not learning how each other operate. That’s a massive underlying key factor.

“The cars were stripped back and rebuilt again. Dennis has done a great job leading the mechanics on the shop floor.

"I wouldn't say it's one thing, it's everyone working collectively together driving the team forward. We've really stepped up our standards this year.

"Jimmy's come in and he has been a breath of fresh air as well from a driver's standpoint. He is challenging Camo, which is really good, and they're working really well together.

"So when you have all those key little ingredients, those one percenters that you're ticking off, that really drives the team forward.”

Crucially, BRT proved its Sydney speed was no fluke in Melbourne, as Golding and Cameron both challenged at the front of the field.

The next litmus test is Taupō, which was BRT's 2025 nadir. So poor was the team in New Zealand last season, that then driver James Courtney labelled it the "worst" weekend of his Supercars career.

With runs on the board in 2026, Harrington laid down the gauntlet, claiming top five speed is the goal.

“We've had a very strong start to the season, and our drivers are doing a really good job,” Harrington said.

"Sydney was nice, but Taupō is going to show where we’re at, because it was such a tough one last year for us.

“But we've got all the ingredients here. The first two rounds have been really strong. There's no reason why we can't come out and be in the top five at least.”

Golding and Cameron are ninth and 19th in points heading to the ITM NZ Double Header, which commences in Taupō on April 10-12.