Phil Keed will race engineer Bryce Fullwood in the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship while bringing a sense of experience to the wider Brad Jones Racing organisation.
Keed’s return to BJR, exclusively reported last week by Speedcafe.com, is a major get in the wake of long-time lead engineer Andrew Edwards’ off-season move to Triple Eight Race Engineering.
In recent years, Keed worked at DJR Team Penske, guiding Fabian Coulthard’s championship challenge in 2017, before being a pivotal figure at Team 18 for the past three seasons.
Prior to that, he’d spent six years at BJR until the end of 2015, with BJR owner Brad Jones excited to now welcome him back.
“I definitely think he’s an asset for us,” Jones told Speedcafe.com.
“We have just been quietly working on our recruitment in the background and there was an opportunity for Phil to come back and join the team. I think it’s fantastic, I couldn’t be more excited, to be honest.”
Keed was involved in BJR’s heyday (to this point) when it nailed the transition to Car of the Future regulations for the start of 2013 and subsequently became a semi-regular race winner.
“With Fabian and Phil together, it was arguably the most successful stint we have had here at BJR,” Jones said.
“It’s great to have him back, he has gained a lot of knowledge being with two strong teams in the meantime, so he’ll come back with more knowledge and by the same token I feel like we have got pretty fast cars.
“We have got a great engineering group, a terrific mix of youth and enthusiasm and experience, and Phil adds to that.
“I feel like it’s a good opportunity to get a bit of new information.
“I love the way Phil works, I feel like he will fit back into the group really well, there’s a lot of people still here from when he was last here.
“It feels like he has come home to be honest.”
While Keed will work directly with Fullwood on Car #14, ex-Todd Hazelwood engineer Tony Woodward has been confirmed as Andre Heimgartner’s race engineer.
Macauley Jones and Jack Smith will continue with Tom Wettenhall and Paul Forgie, respectively. Paul Scalzo is the team’s engineering department manager.
No fancy job title beyond race engineer is expected for Keed: “Honestly, this is not about job titles. Phil is coming back to be our most experienced engineer,” noted Jones.
“He has been around for a long time and he is going to be engineering Car #14 and contributing as everyone does here to all the other cars in the place.
“We have got a very tightknit group, they have all been working very hard, and Phil is part of that process.”
The 2022 season kicks off at Sydney Motorsport Park on March 4-6.
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