But for a wildcard effort in last year’s enduros, BRT has been a single-car outfit in the top flight since the family branched out on its own in 2021 after four years as a Brad Jones Racing-run entry.
With the expansion also came a new driver line-up comprised of rookie Aaron Love, who spent 2023 in Super2 with the Box Hill operation, and 2010 champion James Courtney, who made the move from Tickford Racing.
Several other staff came from Tickford, including Race Engineer Raymond Lau and Kate Harrington into the position of Team Manager.
Despite now fighting on a level playing field in the teams’ championship, BRT remains on the bottom of the table coming into this weekend’s Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint.
“I think we’re realistic in the expansion and the pains that come with it,” said Blanchard, Co-Principal at the squad.
“We’ve gone from roughly five people full-time to about 14, 15 full-time, so that’s a big change in in the team and the dynamic of the team.
“Pretty much everyone on the team wasn’t here with us last year, so it’s effectively a fully new team from a personnel point of view.
“I think, operationally and the culture side of it, since January, since everyone’s joined, has been tremendous and it’s improving dramatically, week-to-week.
“Then it’s the hard bit, which is getting the car speed.
“We’ve struggled with that in the first three rounds and no one in the team will deny that but I think the foundations have been really good away from the car speed.
“That’s building and hopefully today’s the first sign of a glimmer of some of that hard work starting to translate into some on-track performance as well, but there’s a long way to go this weekend.”
It is arguably the highlight of BRT’s season so far, although the 42-year-old did also finish eighth in the Thursday race at Albert Park.
He is currently 17th in the drivers’ championship while rookie Love is 24th, dead last of those who have contested every event in the year to date.
While the 21-year-old was part of the wildcard campaign in 2023, his first full season in the Repco Supercars Championship has been a baptism of fire, starting with hitting the wall three times in the two races which made up the Bathurst 500 season-opener.
Blanchard admits they have put Love in “a very difficult position” but are keeping the faith in the West Australian.
“I think we put him in a very difficult position because he’s driving in his rookie season, in an expanding team where the car’s not great; it’s difficult to drive,” he conceded.
“But, we put him in this situation because we’ve seen what he’s done in everything else he’s raced.
“We’ve got all the technical people in our side, they’ve looked at all the data and are very impressed by what they see; his attitude and competitiveness is really impressive.
“So, for us, it’s just a matter of time to get our own house in order and I’m sure, once we give him the equipment, we’ll see his true ability.
“But his attitude and positivity so far this season’s been really good considering what he’s had to deal with.
“I think he sees a lot of progress in what we’re doing and steps we’re taking to improve the team and the car for him.
“I think he’s still in a pretty good frame of mind, which is always the danger with a rookie driver when the car’s not great.
“We just need a good weekend and give him a good car, and we’ll see what his talent is like.”
Love was slowest of all in Practice 1, although Blanchard reported “a few issues” with brakes on the #3 Mustang.
Practice 2 starts at 09:15 local time/11:15 AEST.
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