THE Blanchard Racing Team has broken out of its downward spiral at a pivotal moment.
Having been the Supercars pitlane’s cellar dwellers the past couple of years, BRT stunned everybody by delivering a front-row lockout for the first race of 2026 which it converted into a double podium.
The pace remained for a few rounds thereafter but results were sporadic, before the squad found itself on a slippery slope upon returning from the New Zealand doubleheader.
“I think we probably started off better than what we should have and we probably got pretty excited about that,” James Golding confessed prior to the Ipswich Super440.
Aaron Cameron’s improvement in race execution has at least salvaged points, lifting him to 17th, but Golding’s finals chances took a hit as he went from having eight top-sevens in the first 13 races to enduring a 14-race run without a single top-10 result.
Some misses were down to sheer bad luck, with Golding taken out at Townsville and on the Saturday of Ipswich, before finally things came together for the CoolDrive #7 with a fifth-place finish in the Repco Sprint Cup finale.
That has propelled him 55 points clear of the provisional finals cut line, and combined with Cameron’s efforts has got BRT ahead of both Brad Jones Racing and Matt Stone Racing in the pitlane order for The Bend 500.
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“The guys did a really good job across the board operationally and set-up wise, the team really performed,” BRT manager Kate Harrington told V8 Sleuth.
“We just came in knowing we needed to get a points haul and that was sort of the focus, not going out and necessarily being a hero on one day.
“It’s definitely given the team as well as the drivers the boost that we need going into enduros now.”
Golding will be joined by Richie Stanaway in what shapes to be a blockbuster enduro combination, while Cameron and Zak Best are one of just six unchanged pairings year-on-year.
Any driver who sits top nine in the championship standings come the end of Bathurst will be guaranteed a finals berth, with the 10th spot going to the Ryco Enduro Cup winner or the driver ranked 10th overall if the Enduro Cup winner meets the top nine criteria.
BRT is one of five teams yet to taste finals action, along with BJR, MSR, PremiAir Racing and Erebus Motorsport.
