Brad Jones Racing aims to sharpen its Supercars Championship efforts following the announcement of a new technical alliance with renowned organisation Pratt & Miller Engineering.
The three-car team will now receive technical support from the American firm after agreeing to a 12 month arrangement.
The company will offer an analysis of BJR’s current program as it strives to improve consistency and overall performance.
The technical alliance, sparked by the relocation of Pratt & Miller development engineer Charlie Ping from the US to Melbourne, will see BJR benefit from the organisation’s vehicle dynamics and simulation software.
Pratt & Miller boast an extensive knowledge of General Motors machinery. The company currently offers support packages to teams in the IMSA sports car, Pirelli World Challenge, IndyCar and NASCAR.
However, this will be the company’s first foray into Supercars and the Asia Pacific region.
Team boss Brad Jones admits this is a new direction his team has taken and is keen to see the benefits.
The squad has enjoyed a strong start to the season highlighted by double wins for Tim Slade at Winton.
“A company like Pratt & Miller have huge resources and it presents a pretty exciting opportunity for us at BJR,” Jones told Speedcafe.com.
“It is the first time we have done something like this so I’m keen to see where it goes.
“It’s very early days. They (Pratt & Miller) have got an array of knowledge and it is about working out how this fits in a V8 Supercar.
“We have been doing a little bit of work with Charlie (Ping) this year. I wouldn’t say the relationship starts from Townsville but we hope to get more data from there.”
BJR’s head of engineering Andrew Edwards is confident the partnership has the potential to push the team forward.
“One of our goals for 2016 was to understand the characterisation and dynamics of our car better,” said Edwards.
“When the opportunity came up to work with Pratt & Miller we grabbed it with both hands. Their experience and tools in modelling and simulation are at the highest level.
“We are excited at the potential these tools have to improve our consistency and performance in the future.”
Ping, who has previously worked in IndyCar and sports cars, will join the team’s engineering department at this weekend’s Castrol Edge Townsville 400.
The experienced engineer expects the relationship to deliver more podiums this season.
The majority of the work between Pratt & Miller and BJR will be conducted in Australia.
“We have been working with Brad Jones Racing for a few months, and they have been instrumental in helping us design and validate a support package tailored to the unique Supercar platform,” said Ping.
“Pratt & Miller are proud of our long relationship with General Motors and excited to now work with Holden, another GM brand with a proud motorsports heritage.
“Our expectation is to help Brad Jones Racing bring the Holden brand to many podium finishes in 2016 and beyond.”
BJR’s Commodores for Slade, Jason Bright and Tim Blanchard will carry Pratt & Miller logos this weekend.
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