TIM Blanchard has given the strongest indication yet that his Supercars co-driving days are numbered.
In recent years, the Blanchard Racing Team co-principal has taken his time in deciding whether or not to jump in for the enduros, but inevitably has done so on each occasion.
However, he’s open about potentially finding himself on the sidelines this year as BRT expands to a fully-fledged two-car outfit.
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Jack Perkins has already been signed to co-drive with James Courtney in the #7 Snowy River Caravans Mustang, and an enduro partner for rookie Aaron Love in the #3 CoolDrive entry mightn’t be far away.
“I think we’re pretty close,” Blanchard told V8 Sleuth of locking in a second co-driver for the 2024 Sandown 500 and Repco Bathurst 1000.
“It’s not finalised but I’m anticipating it will be resolved before the season starts.”
That leaves a short window before the situation might become clearer, given the season will open in less than a month’s time (February 23-25) at the Thrifty Bathurst 500.
Quizzed on whether it was likely to be Blanchard himself or another driver, the 13-time Bathurst 1000 starter replied: “Probably not me”.
After a period of growth, BRT is likely to dedicate all its effort and resources to the Courtney and Love Gen3 Mustangs – meaning its Super2 car will be parked at least initially.
“We won’t be doing that at the beginning of the year, but we might look at doing some rounds in the second half of the season,” Blanchard said of Super2.
“At the moment, just for the first half of the year, the focus is purely on getting the two cars up to speed and getting on top of things and minimising the distractions around that.
“And then we’ll look at other programs in the second half of the year and potentially next year.”
Debuting in 2010, Blanchard raced for Paul Morris Motorsport, Kelly Racing, Dick Johnson Racing, Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport and Brad Jones Racing before launching BRT as a standalone squad at the start of ’21.
