Supercars Ford Team Blanchard Racing Concerned After Sydney

While Walkinshaw Andretti Racing’s Chaz Mostert swept both races in a Ford Mustang GT at the Sydney SuperNight on July 20^th and 21^st, 2024, another Blue Oval team, Blanchard Racing Team (BRT), left Sydney Motorsports Park with more question than answers about its performance. Veteran James Courtney and rookie Aaron Love both finished near the bottom of the standings in each race, raising concerns around the Blanchard stable.

Courtney, who drives the No. 7 Ford Mustang for Blanchard, finished 21^st in Race 15 and 23^rd in Race 16 among 25 entries; Love’s No. 3 Mustang finished 23^rd and 25^th, respectively. According to a report from Supercars.com, BRT is extremely worried about its on-track performance.

“Not a lot of good news from the weekend. There is nothing positive for us,” team owner Tim Blanchard said. “We’ve got to work out what’s wrong. There is something fundamentally wrong somewhere. At least we’ve got a bit of an extended break before Tassie to try and find a solution.”

BRT entered Sydney with major changes on board for the team. Race Engineer Raymond Lau left BRT and was replaced with Matt Saunders as lead engineer on the Courtney machine for Sydney. Unfortunately, the shuffle didn’t produce sufficient results last weekend. Courtney, the 2010 Australian Supercars champion, is currently 18^th in the overall standings while Love holds down a disappointing 23^rd.

Blanchard will “try and find a solution” to its abysmal performance last weekend in the coming weeks. It’s worth noting that 2024 is BRT’s first season as a two-car outfit. Previously, it only fielded a single entry in the Supercars Championship.

In other Ford road racing news, Courtney may be on his way out of the Supercars Championship. the veteran announced his retirement from the series upon conclusion of the 2025 racing season with plans to pursue a career in real estate after he hangs up his helmet. However, just a few days later, Courtney backtracked that announcement, saying he’d be open to continuing his racing career if things pan out with BRT.

The next Supercars race is the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint, scheduled for August 16^th through 18^th.