SINCE Brad Jones Racing made its Supercars championship debut in 2000 it has celebrated pole positions, race wins and round victories, yet there is still one major title which eludes the outfit.
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A Bathurst 1000 crown.
While the team – which has expanded to run three cars in the championship and switched from Ford to Holden over the years - has come close to Great Race glory, second is as close as they’ve got.
“They’ve had very fast cars up there for a very long time,” Nick Percat, who steers the #8 Commodore for the team this year, said.
“It's a bit of a mystery what happens at Bathurst with BJR, but hopefully we can end that.
“It’s a race meeting that's probably got away from him a few times both as a team owner and a driver.
“We go up there with good cars every year, obviously Fabian [Coulthard] has been very quick there, Sladey [Tim Slade], myself last year, Brad when he was driving.”
READ MORE: Bathurst is a mental challenge
Last year Percat and co-driver Macauley Jones looked a chance of claiming the team’s maiden win after taking a risk in being the first car in the field to run on slicks.
But lock up led to a tyre flat-spotting which in turn saw the car drop back through the field and ultimately on the final lap, Percat crashed. The potential podium became a DNF.
This year Percat has again paired with Jones and after being hit by more bad luck at Sandown – the gear lever snapped and cost them more than 15 minutes – is hoping for a change in fortune.
“I don't think any team has ever had a gear lever snap, so it's a bit of a mystery,” Percat said.
“We've had good speed all year and it we've probably shown that a little more lately. We qualified seventh for the Sandown 500 and everything was going quite well. But then curve-ball which is out of our control.
"Obviously that's a bit annoying and hard to take because it's a control part in the category, you can't do anything fancy with it. You just bolted them in and assume they're correct and obviously that one wasn't. So we're the ones that have to deal with a poor result at Sandown.
“Last year and this year, we've always had potential to get big results but things have happened to go wrong. Hopefully Bathurst is a bit kinder, surely we’ve got most of the bad luck out of the way at Sandown.”
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As well as the Percat-Jones pairing, BJR will have Tim Slade and Ash Walsh in car #14 while Tim Blanchard and Dale Wood race the #21 entry.
A win for any of those three would be good, but naturally Percat hopes he’s the one who can do it.
"I think if we can get result in any car it would be huge, but if it was car number eight with his son on board - if he saw Macauley up on that podium I think it would have Brad in tears. So the goal is to make Brad cry,” he said.
“To give that whole team a reward at Bathurst would be pretty special as obviously Bathurst does throw a few curve balls at us.
“It’s the best event of the year.”
