Jordan Boys reflects on highs and lows before Bathurst 1000 debut

STEVE TERVET: Congratulations on the co-drive; how did the partnership with Brad Jones Racing come about?

JORDAN BOYS: We first got in contact at the start of this year. I generally go and see Brad at the start of every year to get some advice and when we had that meeting he said this was a possibility. We had a few more chats in between but it was more of a maybe and we were just working through it and I had my fingers crossed all year that it would happen. Never doing Bathurst before, it's a little bit of a risk for any team to take you so there was some stuff we had to work through and obviously this COVID stuff doesn't help anything with Super2 getting pretty limited laps versus what we would normally get.

ST: Were you always confident of reaching this point?

JB: I wouldn't say confident. I thought there was a good chance I could miss out simply because of the way the year was going, that we weren't getting many race miles and that kind of thing. That was the thing that concerned me when you've got guys like Dean Canto or Luke Youlden, that have just done so many Bathursts and they're just kicking around. That was my main concern so I wouldn't say I was confident, but Brad has always looked out for me where he could and I think this is probably just another example of that.

ST: So what does it mean to see your name in black and white for the Bathurst 1000?

JB: I was pretty stoked. I didn't think that it would mean so much to me but just actually getting everyone else to know, I guess it makes it feel more real. It does make it feel a bit special just because it is such a dream of mine and Supercars is where I want to finish and this is just the next step for that.

ST: How long has this been your dream?

JB: I would say since I was five or six. Watching it, I was like, that's what I want to do. I think at that point you don't wrap your head around that it's going to be your career but I wanted to race cars. Each year, the family would have a big thing with all of our friends watching Bathurst and I have pretty good memories of getting up early to watch the race and all that kind of stuff from really early on. So for me, definitely all the way through my racing career, it was from age seven for sure - and I think probably even younger I've been watching the race thinking that's where I want to be. I don't know if I looked at it as a career option, it was just what I wanted to do. Realistically, you probably have to have work on the side anyway, but it was always just seen as racing - I'd either be doing it professionally or as a hobby.

ST: What was race day like in the Boys household when you were growing up?

JB: There was a group of five or six families that used to come. We'd sort of circulate between households each year and I remember getting up and doing the egg and bacon breakfast and BBQ lunch and all that kind of thing. It was really the only day that I ever sat still for a whole day - normally I was out running around or doing something.

ST: Have you always lived in Albury?

JB: Yes. I went to Lavington Primary and Murray High School. I played football in school just because that was what my friends did but I never really played any sport outside of school. Once I was doing the go-karting thing, we just didn't have the time. We were doing it pretty full-on, we were having a good crack at it, so any weekends off you got you were working on the karts or something like that.

ST: Who were the major influences in your decision to take motorsport seriously?

JB: Dad is the driving influence for sure. Once he was old enough to go out and buy his own motorbikes, he did that and then went racing. He never had the opportunity to go racing but as soon as he could afford to do it, he was into it. He did motorbikes for a while but then he hurt himself and went into go karts. Once he had boys, I think it was probably pretty likely that he wanted to go racing with them. I guess V8s were always on the TV and that's what I was attracted towards - more so me than my twin brother. I was really, really into it and that was where it came from. I was driving go-karts around dad's workshop at the age of three and four. It was definitely not forced upon me but all of my memories that I have involve some sort of driving. Mum and dad did everything in their power to give me this opportunity and it's pretty crazy that we've been able to go this far with it because dad is a mechanic and most of the guys that I'm racing with are from a different background, let's put it that way.

ST: Does it feel satisfying to have done it that way?

JB: It does when I sit back and look at it but in the moment, I don't see myself any different to anyone else that I race.

ST: How important is it to have good people around you in this industry?

JB: Really important. You can buy a good car and you can do all these things but unless you have every piece of the puzzle in place it's just not going to happen. I've been really fortunate, since I've been in Supercars, to drive for Image Racing with Terry and Dana Wyhoon. They've always been a really supportive backbone, a family away from the family I suppose. That's been the best thing for me and it is the only reason that I managed to last the three seasons in Super2, for sure. They took me on board as one of their own and that's what's brought my results. It's just their passion for the sport, to try and put the right people in my corner to go and succeed and you truly do need everything going for you to make it work. In motorsport, and particularly in Supercars, it seems that as soon as one thing's out, you're pretty much not competitive.

ST: How well do you know Todd Hazelwood, your co-driver?

JB: Pretty well because we raced go-karts together. He raced dirt go-karts for a while and then he transitioned when he was 12 or 13. I would have been 10 or so then, so he was always the class above. But I knew Todd and watched him race; I think he was racing with Macaulay (Jones) in that sort of age bracket so we know Todd and the Hazelwoods quite well. To be honest, he comes from a fairly similar type of background. They worked crazy hard to get him to where he is. I've known him for a long time and can relate the journey pretty well with him. Todd's engineer, Tony, used to race go-karts with my sister as well so I know the whole group pretty well. It's a small world in motorsport.

ST: Super2 has only had two rounds this year - at Adelaide in January and Sydney in July - so how much have you missed going racing?

JB: A lot. It's weird doing five-day weeks at work - and not a good weird (laughs). It's been a strange year and every time you get in the car, you feel pretty rusty at the moment. Our series is pretty spaced out already; you've got six rounds spread across the year so it's not uncommon to be four or five weeks out of the car. Now, for that to have doubled, it's not a good thing but we're very fortunate to be able to go racing at all. There's a lot of football codes, especially locally, that can't even do that so we're very fortunate to get to go racing, but it's definitely thrown a spanner in the works for someone like myself.

ST: You're an Albury boy driving for an Albury team in the great race - how proud will you be to represent our region on the big stage for BJR?

JB: People thought it was the logical next step because I'm from the same town and everything but it's generally not how motorsport works. It is really cool because, being younger, everyone was like 'so when you grow up, you're going to go and race for Brad Jones because he's the local Supercars guy.' When I was super young, I was convinced that I was only ever going to drive a Ford, I wasn't driving anything else, so if you had asked me 'Brad Jones Racing in a Holden?' I'd have said 'not happening' but from pretty early on they were the team that I followed. I wouldn't say that I looked at it and went 'I'm going to go to Supercars and I'm going to drive for BJR but it's something that I've definitely wanted to do. I wanted to be in the sport, period. I probably didn't have a team in mind but it's really cool to be able to say that's where I got my start.

ST: Tell me a bit more about yourself; what's your day job?

JB: I'm a qualified mechanic so most of my days are spent servicing cars and doing all that sort of fun stuff. I live here in Albury with my girlfriend and most of my hobbies are fitness-related. I do a lot of mountain biking, road biking and going to the gym. I'm a fairly outdoors person away from the race track but I never really get a break from cars because that's my whole life. Most of my family are in Bendigo, that's where both mum and dad are from, and we used to see them every time we went go-karting in Bendigo whereas now it's made it a little bit harder.

ST: Will you have any family or friends supporting you at Mount Panorama?

JB: I don't think so just because most of my family's in Victoria. That sucks a little bit but, to be honest, that's secondary. For me, the race itself and the driving bit is the bit that I can't wrap my head around.

ST: It sounds like Brad Jones has been a mentor for you even before striking up this partnership?

JB: As soon as I made the move to cars, he was a big part of guidance of where I should go next. It's funny that I haven't done anything with him racing-wise yet, I thought I would have but it's just not how everything played out. He was the one who actually put me in touch with Image Racing so from Formula Ford to Super3, that was all through Brad's guidance.

ST: How crucial was the fundraiser at Sodens just over a year ago when Brad and David Reynolds turned up to help keep your season going?

JB: If I hadn't done that night, realistically, I wouldn't have gone to Bathurst and it probably would have wrapped up. There's no chance I would have been doing a co-drive because I wouldn't have done Bathurst or Sandown, I wouldn't have won my first Super2 race and Brad probably wouldn't have looked at me. That night was great because Brad speaks so well and has such a cool story of background motorsport. Most of our family and friends are motorsport fans so everyone was ragging on me pretty hard to hold another one. It's funny to look back at it and there's a good chance if Brad and Dave hadn't done that for me, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

ST: Does that sum up the spirit of your sport?

JB: I think it sums up that, locally, we all stick together. It wasn't like it took a heap of convincing to get either of them there, they were down for it straight away. It's probably something I'll have to repay some day in favours but it's pretty cool they were willing to come and do that.

ST: Can this weekend put you in the shop window to race Supercars in 2021?

JB: That's the plan. I think most of the top 10 out of Super2 could go and do good enough lap times to be a competent co-driver, but I don't think that's what the team bosses are worried about. I think they're probably worried about you plastering the thing in the wall at Bathurst. I need to go up there and make sure I do a good job and look after the car and hand it to Todd in a good position. That'll put me in a good position and put me in front of everyone to show that I can do a good job. I'd like to do some wildcards next year, single events in the main Supercars championship, maybe Winton being our local one. I think Super2, economically, is going to be pretty hard for me to do again and that could be the case for a fair few of us in the category.