The possibility of BJR signing on as Toyota’s second team for the marque’s 2026 entry into the category with its Supra model has emerged amid the latest moves by GM.
Charlie Schwerkolt’s Team 18 had long been favoured to join Walkinshaw Andretti United on the Toyota side of the fence.
However, Team 18 is now set to stay with GM having been selected as its homologation team amid the fallout from Triple Eight’s impending defection to Ford.
Asked by Speedcafe if he’s exploring the Toyota path, Jones said: “I haven’t got next year sorted out yet, but you’ll be the first one to know when I do.”
Toyota has been clear from its initial launch announcement last year that it will sign a second team to join WAU.
However, there remains uncertainty around what budget Toyota has for the second team and the costs association with its engine, which is under development.
Buy tickets
“I’m just looking at what’s available and then at some point in the not-too-distant future I’ll make a decision,” Jones added when asked for a timeline on the talks.
“But right now I’m just focused on what we’re doing day-to-day and that’s something that’s going on in the background.”
BJR currently fields four Camaros in the championship for drivers Andre Heimgartner, Bryce Fullwood, Jaxon Evans and Macauley Jones, son of Brad.
Jones categorically quashed suggestions his team could take the opportunity to slim down to two cars if it switches marques.
“I’ll be running four cars no matter what I’m doing,” he said.
“I have a model that works really well with four cars. If I cut back to two, I’ll have to get rid of half of my people and I’m not going to do that.
“It’s not going to make me go any better or any worse, it’s just going to cut the business in half.
“You go through all that pain of building a team and growing it with an extra car or an extra two, but once you get over that hump, you’ve got the people and the infrastructure, if you’ve got enough sponsorship to run the cars properly it doesn’t matter if you run two or four, you’re not going to run two cars any better then you’re going to run four cars.”
BJR is the only four-car squad in the Supercars Championship after Tickford Racing scaled back to two entries for the 2024 season.
Discussion about this post