BRT breakthrough reduces Courtney to tears
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 8 June 2025
James Courtney has achieved almost everything in a storied Supercars career, but there is a good reason why a third place has produced tears.
Courtney’s 66th podium was far from ordinary, as it gave the struggling Blanchard Racing Team its first ever piece of Supercars silverware.
The Blanchard family have been part of Supercars for decades, but started their own standalone team in 2021.
It was almost a dream start with Tim Slade within touching distance of a podium on the team’s Bathurst 500 debut, only for that hope to come to a crashing end.
Since then, the team has grown, but struggled for competitiveness, having never finished higher than sixth in the last 60 races.
BRT has spent the majority of that time battling at the back of the pack, but all those troubles are now a memory.
With the help of a well-timed Safety Car, Courtney produced a special drive in the Perth Super440 finale to finish third.
But that does not express how hard he had to work for it, being the face of the backmarkers since he made the move from Tickford and often battled to get close to the top 10.
Then, when the golden opportunity arrived, the 2010 champion proved he has not lost his talent in his retirement year.
Courtney restarted fourth, but jumped Ryan Wood to snare third and drove away from Cam Waters to secure a dream podium.
Courtney has won 15 races and tasted the ultimate success, but few drives stirred such strong emotions as today’s third place.
“I am not going to lie I did cry on the in lap. I was like a little kid in the car and Woody yesterday bit for different reasons,” joyous Courtney said in a teary interview with Jess Yeates.
“It has been a tough 18 months with these guys, so much hard work and to be able to repay them with this result is amazing.
“We had genuine speed on Friday, and Qualifying has been a struggle for us, but we had good strategy and pace in fresh air.
“I was pretty excited (when the Safety Car) came because I knew we had good tyres.
“I was concerned about Cam because he had only three laps fresher tyres and that was going to be a bit of a challenge.
“At the restart I had to hustle it along and pushed pretty hard to get past Woody and managed it to the end.
“I could not be more happy. I might retire after this!
“Motorsport is full of more bad days than good, so you have to make these last.”
The man who has led the team from nothing to the podium is Tim Blanchard.
Especially since expanding to two cars at the start of 2024, BRT has gone through hell and back and let go of a driver as recently as four rounds ago.
Blanchard admitted he has even questioned if he should continue the family squad, but knows all the pain was worth it as his little team enjoys its first piece of silverware.
“It has been a bit of a journey,” Blanchard said.
“We have been involved in the sport and Supercars for a very long time but we started BRT as it is today in 2021, and it has been a tough four years.
“We started reasonably well and got very close a number of times but never quite got that podium.
“Over the last 12 months, expanding to two cars has been a real struggle, and there have been times when you question ‘why are we still doing this?’
“But over the last few weeks and months, we have taken some big steps forward.
“We were fortunate but we rolled the dice on strategy and sometimes it goes in your favour and today it did.
“There have been so many people that have been on the journey with us.
“All our families plus all the CoolDrive staff in addition to the BRT team who helped set the team up. Hundreds of people on this journey.
“It is one little podium, but for us on the journey we have been it is a major milestone.”
Image: Peter Norton
Supercars Perth Super440 (all times AEST)
Practice 1: 1: Jaxon Evans 55.0864 2: Ryan Wood +0.3596 3: Broc Feeney +0.3948
Practice 2: 1: Matt Payne 54.3903 2: Anton De Pasquale +0.0856 3: Thomas Randle +0.2214
R14 Qualifying: 1 Chaz Mostert 53.6858 2 Ryan Wood +0.0839 3 Brodie Kostecki +0.0961
R15 Qualifying: 1 Ryan Wood 53.8966 2 Cameron Waters +0.2578 3 Broc Feeney +0.3017
Race 14 (50 laps): 1 Ryan Wood 47:18.8672 2 Will Brown Triple Eight 50 +0.6129 3 Chaz Mostert WAU 50 +3.3897 -2
Race 15 (50 laps): 1 Broc Feeney Triple Eight 50 46:56.3687 2 Will Brown Triple Eight 50 +1.5767 3 Chaz Mostert WAU 50 +1.9915 +8
R16 Qualifying: 1 Broc Feeney 53.8300 2 David Reynolds +0.0328 3 Matt Payne +0.0475
Top 10 Shootout: 1 Broc Feeney 53.8300 2 Cameron Waters +0.2079 3 Will Brown +0.2861
Race 16 (83 laps): 1 Broc Feeney Triple Eight 83 01:23:13.1653 2 Matt Payne Grove Racing 83 +0.5671 +2 3 James Courtney BRT 83 +5.2550 +10
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