TODD Hazelwood will have a new race engineer for the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight after the Blanchard Racing Team confirmed a personnel reshuffle.
BRT boss Tim Blanchard said the team is in the final stages of recruiting an engineer, with Mirko De Rosa to miss the next several events.
There has been speculation that De Rosa is leaving BRT for a rival squad but Blanchard declared he’s committed until the end of 2023.
“He’s been in at work yesterday, he’s in at work today and he’s coming in tomorrow as per normal,” Blanchard told V8 Sleuth.
“He’s got family coming out from Italy and his first kid is due in a couple of weeks so he is taking some time off from attending race events.
“We’re shuffling people around but that’s normal business. People’s personal circumstances change.
“Mirko is very passionate about designing and building cars and we have got the wildcard car being built at the moment so he is pretty keen to be involved in getting that car on the ground and prepped.
“And that aligns with his personal commitments in the short term a lot better so he is going to be focused on building that wildcard car for us.”
V8 Sleuth revealed last week that both BRT and Dick Johnson Racing have been approved by the Supercars Commission to run wildcards at Sandown and Bathurst.
It’s understood BRT is planning to run its Super2 rookie Aaron Love in a second Mustang.
“It’s half-built,” Blanchard said of their second Gen3 car, while noting that any potential wildcard would be run in addition to its usual Supercars and Super2 programs.
“One of the advantages of Mirko not being at the next few events will be he can get that car finished.
“He’s a very knowledgeable guy and we saw what he did with getting the Gen3 car built at the beginning of the year and being the first to get one out on the track.
“So if there’s anyone you want to get a Gen3 car built in a short period of time, he’s the guy.”
