WHEN Tim Blanchard gets behind the wheel for his ninth Bathurst 1000 this Sunday, it will not only be his personal desire to win the Great Race for the first time which will be a motivator.
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Blanchard would also love to win for the team he will be co-driving for - Brad Jones Racing.
While Blanchard, who retired from a full-time Supercars seat last season, has his share of experience at Mount Panorama, it does not come close to that of Brad Jones.
As a driver Jones had 24 attempts at finding Great Race glory and while having six podiums, none were as the winner.
Since Brad and Kim Jones made their debut as team owners in the Supercars series in 2000 they have also celebrated Bathurst podiums, but again they have not been for claiming the chequered flag.
"Brad and Kim, it's no secret they are desperate to win that race, it's something that's very much front of mind for everyone in the team, the desire to win that event," Blanchard, who will act as Nick Percat's co-driver, said.
"It's something that Nick and I are really desperate to do just because of the contribution Brad and Kim have made not only to Supercars, but motor sport in general over a long period of time.
"They deserve to see their name on the Bathurst trophy at some point and hopefully this is the year."
The #8 Commdore Percat shares with Blancard is seen as BJR's best prospect of finding Bathurst 1000 success.
Not only is Percat sitting eighth in the championship, but he won the 1000 on debut for the Holden Racing Team and has since stood on the podium twice more.
Blanchard is only one year out of the series as a full-time driver and this season has both done a Supercars round as a wildcard driver at Barbagallo and contested a Super2 round at Townsville.
"I think you'd struggle to find many people that have a better record than Nick over the last seven or eight years at Bathurst. He definitely comes alive every time we go there and he's in pretty good form at the moment, so I'm pretty excited to be pairing up with him going into Bathurst," Blanchard said.
"Co-driver, it's a very different role, so you've got a different mindset. In the past you're probably just putting it all on the line and seeing what you can get in terms of a result, whereas that's Nick's job this year.
"My job is just to circulate, keep the car in a good condition and good position and try and move it forward if I can. Ultimately I've just got to make sure I had back the car to Nick to do his job."
