FOR the Blanchard Racing Team, there is a higher priority than sheer pace and results at this early point in its evolution as a two-car Repco Supercars Championship team.
Rather, a premium is being placed on laying the correct foundations for the long haul.
That’s an area where the experience of 2010 champion James Courtney is invaluable, utilising observations from his time spent at various powerhouse organisations from the Holden Racing Team to the Jaguar Formula 1 squad.
Courtney noted BRT’s expansion from one car to two for this season is a bigger task than it might seem.
“You think, ‘buy another car and a couple of tools and off you go’, but there’s so much more involved,” he told V8 Sleuth.
“It’s all the little things, like servicing another title sponsor which is something that they haven’t really had to do, that commercial side with the way the business is and how they leverage their racing.
“Even setting up a garage to keep both sponsors happy, all the way down to little things like packing the truck.
“Everyone has got a B-double, but they could just throw shit in before because they had so much room with only one car but now having to work out where everything goes to take all of the equipment was a headache.
“Obviously we want to have a bit better car speed, but coming away from Bathurst we all sat down together and I said ‘I’m not really concerned about the car speed at the moment, it’s more about procedural stuff, getting all of the protocols in place’.
“It’s so easy with a new group of people and so many people together to get lost and pick up bad habits with bad communication and little things like the structure within the garage and the debriefing structure.
“All that sort of stuff is super important and it’s something that we’re probably more focused on that side of it at the moment, getting that all in place.
“Because like I said, the car speed will come, Aaron (Love, teammate) is super quick and a great young talent, I still haven’t given up so I’m fighting.
“It’s important to get that stuff in place so that when we do have the car speed, we don’t throw results away with bad communication or poor decisions. That’s our focus at the moment.”
Sitting 17th in the championship, Courtney has shown plenty of speed at Albert Park – the site of Round 2 this week – in recent visits.
Courtney finished second in the Friday race last year at Albert Park before copping a penalty for Lap 1 contact, and the year before was in the podium hunt until a last-corner clash with Chaz Mostert.
The #7 Snowy River Caravans Mustang driver has recorded at least one podium in every Supercars season dating back to 2006.
