Brad Jones Racing

BJR
Manufacturer	Holden
Team Principal	Brad Jones Kim Jones
Team Manager	Chris Clark
Race Drivers	8. Jason Bright 14. Fabian Coulthard 21. TBC (Customer car)
Chassis	Holden VE Commodore Mygale SJ09a
Debut	2000
Drivers' Championships	0
Round wins	2
Pole positions	1
2011 position	10th (3158 pts)

Brad Jones Racing is an Australian motor racing team centred around brothers Kim and Brad Jones and is based in Albury, New South Wales. Presently the team compete in the V8 Supercar Series, which they joined in 2000. Recently they have also returned to the Australian Formula Ford Championship where Brad and Kim began their careers. The team and its personnel have a strong connection to the district of Albury-Wodonga^[1] and are both the only rurally based V8 Supercar team and the last team in the International Championship to still be based in New South Wales.

1 History
2 AUSCAR
3 Super Touring
4 V8 Supercar
- 4.1 Debut in V8 Supercars
- 4.2 Move To Holden
5 Brad Jones Racing alumni
6 References
7 External links

History

Brad Jones Racing began as a Formula Ford team in which both Brad and Kim raced. Kim stopped racing relatively early, partially in recognition of Brad's ability as a driver with Kim becoming team manager. The team's peak in open wheel racing came in 1981 when running an Elwyn chassis, Brad finished sixth in the national series. The pair faded as the 1980s developed but after a return via Bryan Thomson's Sports Sedan/GT team led to the Jones brothers becoming involved in the Mitsubishi touring car team known occasionally as Mistubishi Ralliart. Racing with Mitsubishi gave Brad several opportunities to race overseas, racing Starion turbo touring cars in Japan and across Asia. Eventually the brothers formed their own team BJ Motorsport to further the Starion touring car operation but by 1986 that was fading and Brad Jones become a hired gun driver for other touring car teams.

AUSCAR

A way forward emerged with the creation of NASCAR racing in Australia with the newly redeveloped Brad Jones Racing one of the first teams involved in the fledging stock car series. Initially BJR raced only in AUSCAR, the second-tier series where they quickly grew to become the dominant team in the series, winning five consecutive titles from 1990 to 1994. Occasional forays into NASCAR blosomed into a full NASCAR campaign in the 1994/95 season and the team were rewarded with a sixth consecutive title.

Super Touring

After running a Super Production Car Lotus Esprit to another title victory in 1994, BJR moved away from the fading Superspeedway scene into circuit racing and in 1995 entered the Australian Super Touring series as the official Audi team in the series. The team then spent the next five years swapping titles with Paul Morris Motorsport, the official BMW team, with Jones winning two championships and Greg Murphy and Cameron McConville winning many races during the six year period when Super Touring was at its peak and twice finished on the podium of the Bathurst 1000.

V8 Supercar

Debut in V8 Supercars

The team entered the V8 series in 2000 after purchasing an AU Ford Falcon and franchise from Tony Longhurst. Running as a one car team in 2000 and 2001 with major sponsor OzEmail and driver Brad Jones, the team achieved modest results, highlighted by second place in the 2001 Bathurst 1000 where Jones partnered John Cleland.

From 2002 to 2004, with continued sponsorship from OzEmail, BJR expanded their operation to two cars, with former ATCC champion John Bowe joining the team from Briggs Motor Sport. Performance at Bathurst continued to be strong, Bowe qualifying 2nd in 2002 and 2003, and the Bowe-Jones combination finishing 3rd in 2004. However, this pace could not be found at all rounds of the championship, and OzEmail left the team at the conclusion of the 2004 series.

In 2005, BJR was parented by gas giant, BOC and was re-named as Team BOC. They got their first win at the Australian Grand Prix (Non- Championship) courtesy of Bowe in race 2, but success in the following championship rounds eluded them. A low for the year came at the Bathurst 1000 when Jones was caught up in a lap 1 accident with Garth Tander and Greg Ritter. When the car was being repaired, Jones sat in the car, utterly shattered and visibly upset.

The team started 2006 rejuvenated, after a disappointing 2005 season with a bold, new livery and a partnership with championship winning team Stone Brothers Racing with BJR using SBR engines. The season was marred with bad luck, with the new spec SBR engines power not suiting the BJR engineered chassis and one of the co-drivers for the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000, Mark Porter, died while racing in the development series.

In 2007, Brad's nephew and Kim's son Andrew Jones replaced John Bowe. Once again, the team struggled on in the early stage of this season and Brad Jones publicly announced his retirement on Seven breakfast show, Sunrise. Team BOC drafted 2001 Development Series champion Simon Wills to drive the now vacated #14 BF Falcon at round 4 at Winton. The season had another bad season, with less than pleasing results and at the biggest race of the year, Bathurst, both cars failed to finish with car #14 crashing heavily in qualifying and car #12 having an engine fire.

Move To Holden

In 2008, Brad Jones Racing decided it was time for a change after finishing the 2007 teams championship in last position, behind numerous single car operations. They made the decision to change their manufacturer from their long standing association Ford to the rival Holden. They bought two Holden V8 Supercars previously campaigned successfully by the Holden Racing Team (WP03 & WP05) and now use Walkinshaw Performance built engines in their cars.

With new cars there was also the conformation of a new driver at the team. Cameron McConville was also confirmed as the driver of car # 14 in 2008, also with the addition of a new title sponsor for Car #14, Wow Sight and Sound. McConville returned to the team, having spent two seasons with BJR in the late nineties, driving an Audi in the Australian Super Touring Championship. He was also reunited with his old engineer Wally Storey, whom he worked with at one of his previous teams, the Lansvale Racing Team. He celebrated his return to the team with a third place at the 2008 Clipsal 500. In 2009 Jason Richards joined the team replacing Andrew Jones in the BOC Commodore using a new number, #8.

In 2010, Brad Jones Racing expanded to a three car operation after Jason Bright joined the team bringing his Britek Motorsport license. Bright replaced Cameron McConville, with new sponsorship from Trading Post and Karl Reindler drove the Britek entry with Fair Dinkum Sheds as the naming rights sponsor for the #21 Commodore. Jason Richards stayed in the #8 BOC Gases Commodore.

The team stilled use Walkinshaw Racing chassis in 2010, with WR 003 being Karl Reinder's #21 Fair Dinkum Commodore, WR 005 is Jason Bright's #14 Trading Post Commodore and WR 010 a new commdore for 2010 is Jason Richards' #8 BOC Gases Commodore. The Team will use Noonan Race Engines in the three commodores. Andrew Jones, Matt Haliday and David Wall were enduro event drivers with Jones being with Richards in #8, Haliday with Bright in #14 and Wall with Reindler in #21. Fabrizio Giovanardi and Alain Menu are the international enduro drivers for October's Gold Coast 600. After the Symmons Plains event in Tasmania, Jason Richards was diagonosed with stomach cancer and couldn't compete in the final two events of 2010. Andrew Jones replaced him for final two events of 2010 in #8 BOC Gases Commodore. Trading Post announced that they were not continuing with BJR after 2010. It moved to FPR for Will Davison's car. Jason Richards is still having chemotherapy and the team signed Jason Bargwanna from Kelly Racing. Jason Bright changed to #8 BOC Gases Commodore, Bargwanna jumped in #14 car. Karl Reindler stayed in #21 Fair Dinkum Sheds entry. ROCK energy drinks were supposed to follow Bargwanna from Kelly Racing but went into administration. #14 ran BOC for the first 2 rounds of 2011 before it was announced that Jana Living joined BJR on Bargwanna's car for the rest of the 2011 season.