THE Blanchard Racing Team will do things a little different to their counterparts when Supercars gets stuck into the winter series of long hauls.
The next three rounds on the calendar are the Darwin Triple Crown (June 19-21), Townsville 500 (July 10-12) and Perth Super440 (July 31-August 2).
That’s destined to add up to tens of thousands of kilometres on the road for team trucks/transporters – but a few less in BRT’s case.
That’s because the Victorian squad will resist temptation to return to base between Darwin and Townsville.
In fact, its Super2 truck won’t come back either between Darwin and Round 3 of the Dunlop Series in Perth.
Collectively, that should equate to almost 7000km less on the road.
Not to mention it will allow for crew members to spend extra days in the Darwin sun, preparing cars at Hidden Valley before flying home on the Friday after the round (i.e. June 26), as opposed to working in the bitterly cold Melbourne winter.
“With how fuel prices were heading, it was way cheaper to do what we’re going to do,” BRT manager Kate Harrington told V8 Sleuth, with reference to the recent fuel crisis that had particularly affected diesel supply.
“Fuel has obviously come down a little bit now but we get the same amount of days up there to prep the cars, if not more, than if we drove home, prepped them here and then drove back.
“I don’t know if anyone else is doing it but we are.
“Our Super2 truck will just go straight to Perth and our main truck will go straight to Townsville.”
Several other Victorian teams have confirmed to V8 Sleuth they will return to their respective headquarters between Darwin and Townsville.
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