EXPANSION & CELEBRATION

The 2020 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship marks the 20th anniversary of Brad Jones Racing’s arrival in the category. And the team celebrates the milestone with an expansion to four entries, cementing its place in Supercars as the oldest team not to have had an ownership change since its arrival.

- Andrew Clarke

Brad Jones smiles less than he used to. He jokes less too. But you can still get the broad smile that lights up his face and sparks the twinkle in the eye of a mischievous young man. Jones turns 60 in 2020, so young is perhaps not the first adjective that comes to mind, but the smile is there when he is told the Brad Jones Racing (BJR) team he started with brother Kim has now been in Supercars for 20 years.

“Really?” he quizzes as he quickly does some sums in his head. 2020 minus 2000, yep 20 years. And what an interesting 20 years it has been, with plenty of highs and lows and, surprisingly, few regrets.

The team originally started in the 1980s with both brothers driving Formula Fords after Brad switched to four wheels from motocross, but then it cut back to just Brad behind the wheel and Kim engineering and running most of the show. Brad says he’s been carrying Kim for all that time, but you know that is not quite true and there is a healthy respect for each other that transcends the bonds of brotherhood.

That team was run out of the back of a panel van with car preparation under a carport in Albury. From the Formula Fords with a few steps here and there, it was on to Mitsubishi Starions in Group 3E Series Production Cars. That led to a Bathurst debut with the factory-backed Mitsubishi Ralliart Team in 1985. But that was all a tease for what was to come, which was absolute domination at the Thunderdome with five consecutive AUSCAR titles.