Brad Jones Racing

V8 Supercar Team
Short_name = Team BOC

Manufacturer = Holden
Principal = Brad Jones/Kim Jones
Manager = Kim Jones
Drivers = 12. Andrew Jones 14. Cameron McConville
Chassis = WP03 & WP05
Debut = 2000
Drivers_champ = 0
Wins = 1* (Non Championship)
Poles = 0
Last_season = 2007
Last_position = 17th

Brad Jones Racing (BJR) is based in Albury NSW and is managed by Brad Jones' brother Kim Jones. They joined the V8 Supercar Series in the year 2000 after buying Tony Longhurst's franchise.

BJR had formerly run the works Audi team in Australia for the Australian Super Touring Championship, and were multiple champions in Super Touring, AUSCAR and Australian NASCAR based series. A feature of this team has been their tactical savvy through team manager Kim Jones, and vehicle set-up through veteran 1995 series champion John Bowe.

Running as a one car team in 2000 and 2001 with major sponsor OzEmail and driver Brad Jones, the team achieved modest results, highlighted by second place in the 2001 Bathurst 1000 where Jones partnered John Cleland.

From 2002 to 2004, with continued sponsorship from OzEmail, BJR expanded their operation to two cars, with former ATCC champion John Bowe joining the team from Briggs Motor Sport. Performance at Bathurst continued to be strong, Bowe qualifying 2nd in 2002 and 2003, and the Bowe-Jones combination finishing 3rd in 2004. However, this pace could not be found at all rounds of the championship, and OzEmail left the team at the conclusion of the 2004 series.

In 2005, BJR was parented by gas giant, BOC and was re-named as Team BOC. They got their first win at the Australian Grand Prix (Non- Championship) courtesy of Bowe in race 2, but success in the following championship rounds eluded them. A low for the year came at the Bathurst 1000 when Jones was caught up in a lap 1 accident with Garth Tander and Greg Ritter. When the car was being repaired, Jones sat in the car, utterly shattered and visibly upset.

The team started 2006 rejuvenated, after a disappointing 2005 season with a bold, new livery and a partnership with championship winning team Stone Brothers Racing with BJR using SBR engines. The season was marred with bad luck, with the new spec SBR engines power not suiting the BJR engineered chassis and one of the co-drivers for the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000, Mark Porter, died while racing in the development series.

In 2007, Brad's nephew and Kim's son Andrew Jones replaced John Bowe. Once again, the team struggled on in the early stage of this season and Brad Jones publicly announced his retirement on Seven breakfast show, Sunrise. Team BOC drafted 2001 Development Series champion Simon Wills to drive the now vacated #14 BF Falcon at round 4 at Winton. The season has been another bad season, with less than pleasing results and at the biggest race of the year, Bathurst, having both cars not finishing with car #14 crashing heavily in qualifying and car #12 having an engine fire.

In 2008, Brad Jones Racing decided it was time for a change after finishing the 2007 teams championship in last position, behind numerous single car operations. They made the decision to change their manufacturer from their long standing association Ford to the rival Holden. They bought two Holden V8 Supercars previously campaigned successfully by the Holden Racing Team (WP03 & WP05) and now use Walkinshaw Performance built engines in their cars.

With new cars there was also the conformation of a new driver at the team. Cameron McConville was also confirmed as the driver of car 14 in 2008. McConville returned to the team, having spent two seasons with BJR in the late nineties, driving an Audi in the Australian Super Touring Championship. He was also reunited with his old engineer Wally Storey, whom he worked with at one of his previous teams, the Lansvale Racing Team. He celebrated his return to the team with a third place at the 2008 Clipsal 500.

Brad Jones Racing alumni

flagicon|Australia Brad Jones flagicon|Australia Nathan Pretty flagicon|Australia Matthew Coleman flagicon|New Zealand Greg Murphy *flagicon|Italy Tamara Vidali flagicon|Australia Cameron McConville *flagicon|Germany Frank Biela *flagicon|Belgium Jean-François Hemroulle *flagicon|Australia Paul Morris *flagicon|New Zealand Paul Radisich *flagicon|Australia Tomas Mezera *flagicon|Great Britain John Cleland flagicon|Australia John Bowe *flagicon|Australia Tim Leahey flagicon|Australia Andrew Jones flagicon|Australia Dale Brede flagicon|New Zealand Chris Pither *flagicon|New Zealand Mark Porter *flagicon|Australia Michael Caruso flagicon|New Zealand Simon Wills *flagicon|Singapore Christian Murchison *flagicon|Australia Damien White flagicon|Australia Cameron McConville * Endurance race co-drive only

External links

* [http://www.teamboc.com.au/ Official Brad Jones Racing website]
* [http://www.v8supercar.com.au/news/latestnews/newsdisplay.asp?Ind=M&author=&gid=22960819 Andrew to re-join Brad Jones Racing]