RACING is in the blood for Brad and Kim Jones.
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Their father, Phil, was a mainstay of the racing scene both in Albury and across Australia in the 1960s and 70s, and the apple didn't fall far from the tree.
The brothers have been behind a wheel of some kind almost for as long as they could walk, and while they might be a little reluctant to admit it, it's the bond they've forged over the years that has guided them through the highs and lows of motorsport.
Kim and Brad’s racing team is arguably the most successful regional sporting team in Australia.
The Supercars championship is internationally recognised as one the toughest competitions in motorsport, and yet BJR has had regular success in the series since they first entered in 2000.
Prior to that they had won five Auscar Championships and two Australian Super Touring titles.
The turn of the millennium was judged the right time to join the V8 Supercars competition, which had gained a foothold in the market after its introduction in 1997.
Running just one car, the Ozemail Ford AU Falcon, driven by Brad and prepared by a minuscule staff of seven, the team made a splash at the 2001 Bathurst 1000.
Brad and co-driver John Cleland came just a few seconds shy of upsetting the Mark Skaife and Tony Longhurst-piloted, factory backed Holden Racing Team in the great race.
“That was a real turning point for us,” Brad says.
“We were initially surprised that we weren’t really competitive as we had gotten used to winning.
“This series is just so tough, but that day at Bathurst was significant.”
You could argue that race typified the BJR experience for the years to come.
Qualifying well down the grid in 22nd, the performance of Jones and Cleland that day could best be categorised as intelligent.
The Ozemail Falcon had barely a scratch on it when it crossed the line just 2.28 seconds behind Skaife and his Commodore, despite a particularly wild day on the mountain – even by Bathurst’s usually chaotic standards.
At one point the course was completely dry at the bottom, while the top of the mountain was caught by a sudden deluge of rain – claiming a not insignificant portion of the field with it.
Much like the BJR operation, it wasn’t necessarily a day for flashy racing – but their success in that race came off the back of the kind of hard work, no-nonsense approach that has typified the operation since its beginnings at the turn of the millennium.
There was still plenty of drama though – in the dying stages of the race, no one was certain the leading HRT Commodore or Jones’ second-placed Falcon had enough petrol in the tank to make it to the line.
Kim’s blunt management style came to the fore in that situation.
When a HRT engineer was dispatched the BJR garage to raise the possibility of a ‘splash and go’ for both cars, he was sent back with a fairly unequivocal response.
“No. Way.”
The next year Australian racing legend John Bowe came on board and the operation expanded to two racecars.
The combination of Bowe and Jones was a successful one, with Bowe qualifying on the front row of the grid in 2002 and 2003, before the duo shared a car in 2004 and finished third overall.
While Bowe's experience in what were still the early days of BJR was crucial in establishing the operation as one of the series’ mainstays, it wasn't until 2011 that the team would first see the chequered flag.
“People can’t believe the way we talk to each other sometimes. But when you have been together for so long and been through so much, we are very blunt with each other, get it sorted and move on,”
- Brad Jones
Jason Bright drove the BOC Commodore first past the chequered flag in Perth that year, the beginning of a strong run of success for the team.
Tim Slade's round win at the team's home track of Winton Raceway in 2016 perhaps stands out most of all.
While the early 2010s were a fairly successful time for BJR, they were mixed with a tinge of sadness following the death of popular lead driver Jason Richards in 2011.
The affable Kiwi had been diagnosed with an adrenocortical carcinoma, a remarkably rare cancer, in 2010.
A memorial trophy was named in his honour and introduced when the Supercars series returned to Pukekohe in 2013.
Fittingly, the trophy went to BJR that year, with Jason Bright scoring the most points for the round.
Through it all though, all of the ups and downs, Brad and Kim remain popular and occasionally notorious figures on pit lane.
“People can’t believe the way we talk to each other sometimes,” Brad says.
“But when you’ve been together so long, been through so much, we’re very blunt with each other, get it sorted and move on.
“I remember when we used to put a car that Kim had built and I painted, on a trailer behind our panel van and we’d travel the country.”
It doesn't take long for Kim to interject.
“Can you imagine having to spend that much time with him – no wonder I’m half mad!”
In those early days, the brothers raced a Formula Ford, with Kim taking a step back from driving early on to become team manager.
Brad's career as a driver went from strength to strength through the 1980s, with the brothers taking a liking to the Mitsubishi Starion in the Group E Series Production Touring Cars.
Racing under the banner of BJ Motorsport for the first time in 1986, the brothers qualified 10th for what was then the James Hardie 1000, recording the fastest speed down Conrod Straight that year.
Rarely operating as a factory team (exceptions being with Mitsubishi in the Group E series and the Australian Super Touring for Audi), BJR have had to be as savvy off the track as they have been on it.
As of 2018, the team is the only one in the V8 Supercars series based in NSW, and also the only regional operation.
Australian racing legend Jim Richards recalls watching the Jones brothers practising at Calder raceway on a 43-degree summer day and realising Brad and Kim weren’t lucky to be winners, but worked harder than anyone else and deserved every success they got.
Brad said the nature of their operation had meant they were able to keep improving.
“We had a very long association with Ozemail in the early years, then 15 years with BOC and now nearly five years with Freightliner,” he said.
“We’ve had some great relationships with some of Australia’s best businesses and that’s been a very enjoyable part of our journey.
“It’s all about the people you meet and work with and we worked with some really great people.”
Undoubtedly one of the series’ most unique teams, Brad and Kim are unlikely to slow down any time soon.