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Fourth-year Supercars outfit BRT endured a difficult first half of 2024 following an expansion to two cars over the off-season.
A particularly challenging third event of the campaign for drivers James Courtney and Aaron Love at Taupo back in April led to a deal being struck with WAU.
The arrangement – which was not publicly announced by either team – has been quietly playing out in the background.
“We had a bit of a tough start to the season and have got a fairly young engineering team in general,” Blanchard told Speedcafe at Symmons Plains ahead of the Tasmania SuperSprint.
“We’re trying to support the people in the team and give them extra resources to do their jobs and move us forward.
“It’s a formal but informal agreement. They are just giving us some support and advice and helping us out reviewing some of our setups and processes within the team.
“It’s not a full-blown, traditional technical deal like we’ve seen in the past with other teams, it’s just two teams working together and help each other out a little bit.
“It’s helped us identify a few of the issues from Sydney which probably plagued us for a few rounds.
“Working with them has been really good so far, it’s been one of the better customer deals I’ve been with.”
Work following Sydney Motorsport Park is understood to have included Courtney’s #7 Snowy River Caravans Mustang spending a day in the WAU workshop.
BRT had floundered at the Sydney circuit while WAU star Chaz Mostert swept to two victories.
“I think we’ve understood things set-up wise a lot better the last two or three rounds but the results have still been quite average,” Blanchard continued.
“That’s why we kind of decided that on paper, the car shouldn’t be that bad, that’s why we had to do a bit more digging.
“They’ve helped us out quite a lot with reviewing our setup, how we set the cars up and some of our processes within the team.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a fully open book but it’s enough to get us in the right direction.
“I don’t think they’d want to give away everything, but they’ve gone above and beyond in terms of helping us the last three months, for sure.”
WAU CEO Bruce Stewart says the BRT deal is a sign of his team’s development as it fights to return to its championship-winning ways of previous eras.
“It shows an element of respect in the direction we’re taking the team and how we’re investing in our team,” Stewart told Speedcafe.
“We can work with them (BRT) and help them in our journey as well.”
