Blanchard Racing Team buzzing after steps forward
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 16 November 2024
A maiden season of being a two-car outfit has had its challenges for Blanchard Racing Team, but everyone in the garage has been uplifted by its Adelaide speed.
BRT has impressed throughout the first three days of the VAILO Adelaide 500.
Experienced veteran James Courtney has been the spearhead and hit the ground running by topping Thursday practice, which felt like a win.
Then on Friday Courtney and teammate Aaron Love got a lap in time to secure a maiden double Shootout appearance.
Whilst Courtney did not make the most of his lap, Love pushed hard under pressure and secured sixth on the grid in his first Shootout having had a previous best grid position of 13th at Tasmania.
Although Love put up a fight, but fell to 21st in a long 78-lap race in searing heat, Courtney held position and secured eighth.
It was just the third top 10 finish for BRT all year and team boss Tim Blanchard admitted the Adelaide pace has given everyone in the garage a massive buzz.
Blanchard identified Gold Coast as a turning point where Courtney also made a Shootout appearance, but the extra vindication at Adelaide has gone a long way.
“James had good pace all weekend. I don’t know if it was enough for top five, but we have had top 10 pace all weekend since practice 1,” Blanchard told AUTO ACTION.
“We had a free kick with qualifying but we thought we would have been there on merit and in the race we held our own.
“It has been a tough year and we are slowly making changes and trying things.
“At the Gold Coast we started to see signs of that and again here.
“It does not take much to change the emotions in the team both ways.
“The potential of a few decent results on the Gold Coast definitely lifted everyone’s spirits and we were in a good mood coming here.
“We still have a young crew and they have been learning at each event.
“A few results like today give them a bit of spark and hope they are doing the right thing and improving which we have been seeing and the results vindicate it.”
Blanchard admitted he would have hoped to have seen these results slightly earlier, having made the jump to two cars in 2024, having been in the category since 2021.
“It has taken longer than we would have liked, but there are signs of the expansion, recruitment and hard work over the last 10-12 months show potential,” he said.
“It has been a big step going from one to two cars and it has been a tough journey for anyone who has done that over the last 10-20 years.
“Even the might of Penske took a while to get going.
“It is a big challenge and been harder than we would have liked.”
Image: Peter Norton EPIC Sports Photography
VAILO Adelaide 500 Supercars schedule
Practice 1: 1: J. Courtney 1:19.6835 2: D. Reynolds +0.1553 3: N. Percat +0.3242
Practice 2: 1 D. Reynolds 1:19.4804 2: C. Waters +0.0840 3: C. Mostert +0.1023
Qualifying – 1 W. Brown 1:19.4425 2: C. Waters +0.3631 3: T. Randle +0.4123
Practice 3 – 1 W. Brown 1:19.7649 2 B. Feeney +0.1894 3 T. Randle +0.2517
Top 10 Shootout – 1 C. Waters 1:19.9628 2: T. Randle +0.1182 3: B. Feeney +0.1847
Race 23 1: B. Feeney 2: W. Brown +12.8028 3: C. Waters +13.7810
Qualifying – Sun 10.20-10.35
Top 10 Shootout – Sun 12.35-13.35
Race 24 (78 laps) – Sun 15.15
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