No Sandown Super2 for Perkins

Jack Perkins has revealed he has been denied the opportunity to race his Peter Janson liveried Blanchard Racing Team Mustang in Super2 at next month’s Sandown 500.

Perkins, who is co-driving with James Courtney, was hoping to also race the 1979 Janson/Larry Perkins retro paint scheme in the Super2 races at the Melbourne circuit.

The second generation racer rolled out the special livery for the first time at Townsville and enjoyed great success, securing his first Super2 win in 11 years.

It also gave Perkins valuable Supercars seat time ahead of his first enduro campaign in a Ford since 2014.

BRT had planned to roll out the livery and car once again at Sandown, where Perkins had even planned on giving Cherry Ripes to the fans in similar style to Janson back in the day.

But these plans have been scuppered due to a tweak of Rule 6.2.6, which has been intended to ensure Supercars teams do not suddenly set-up Super2 programs for their co-drivers on enduro weekends.

Perkins admitted he was surprised to discover it has been amended to include the Sandown 500 and not just the Bathurst 1000, which has ruined his hopes of defending his Townsville 500 round win.

“For as long as I can remember, to race Super2 at Bathurst as a main game co-driver you had to participate in 3 of the first 4 races, or 75% of the races prior to Bathurst,” Perkins wrote on social media. 

“This is a well-known rule and one that I have always supported and adhered to. 

“This stops main game teams with bigger budgets and more resources from running their co-drivers in Super2 at Bathurst only. 

“For example, it stops Triple 8 running a Super2 car for (Jamie) Whincup and (Scott) Pye at Bathurst to give them more miles on the Great Race weekend. It’s a good rule. 

“At some stage in the last year or two this rule has been amended to now include Sandown alongside Bathurst, which we, Blanchard Racing Team (BRT), and Supercars weren’t completely aware of until a fellow competitor raised it with Supercars personnel at Townsville.”

Rule 6.2.6 reads: Any Driver who is Competing in an Endurance Event will not be eligible to Compete at the same Event in the Dunlop Series unless that Driver has Competed in a minimum of three (3) of the previous Dunlop Series Rounds in the same year, or in exceptional circumstances at the discretion of Supercars.

After discovering the amendment, BRT applied for dispensation under “exceptional circumstances” in the hope of joining the Sandown Super2 grid.

Perkins highlighted his “longstanding support of Super2” having made his debut in 2006 and rarely raced elsewhere, the technical differences between the Gen2 Super2 cars and Gen3 Supercars, reception of Retiro liveries, plus the prospect of lost revenue for BRT.

Perkins said it took six weeks for Supercars to respond, which is too late to reshape plans.

“We, BRT, applied for a dispensation for Sandown only, under “exceptional circumstances” as per the rule permits,” he continued.

“We, my commercial partners and BRT, put our 2-race deal together late last year, not knowing this rule had been amended to include Sandown.

“We chose the Townsville and Sandown events largely because the car was stripped back to a bare body shell being repaired at the start of the year and getting to the first two events was impossible, given BRT’s expansion to two cars in the Main Series.

“Sandown is also the obvious choice to run a retro livery (and) we also knew that I couldn’t do Bathurst in Super2, so that was never part of our plans.

“Given we were only made aware of this situation in Townsville, we immediately applied for dispensation, and unfortunately, we were only given an answer until now, some 6 weeks after that request. 

“Not only have we already started preparing the car and our marketing campaigns for Sandown, but we have very little time to make or think of a potential plan B! 

“Therefore, if the car doesn’t run at Sandown there will be lost revenue for BRT.

“Unfortunately, though, none of the above was deemed to qualify for “exceptional circumstances” and we now have to accept this decision and focus on the Sandown 500 and the Bathurst 1000 alongside James Courtney with BRT in the Snowy River Caravans Ford Mustang.”

The 2024 Sandown 500 will be held from September 13-15.

Image: DMAC Photography

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