Blanchard will move from Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport replacing Nissan-bound Dale Wood in the #21 third entry.
Blanchard’s signing completes Brad Jones Racing’s 2016 line-up, with confirmation that Jason Bright will continue with the team for a seventh season and the announcement that Tim Slade will replace the DJR Team Penske-bound Fabian Coulthard in BJR’s #14 entry.
Voted the Mike Kable Young Gun of the year in 2010 after debuting in the Dunlop Series, 2016 will mark Blanchard’s third season in the main game having competed with Dick Johnson Racing in 2013, and co-driving alongside Russell Ingall the following year before the move to Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport in 2015.
The third generation racer believes the team will provide him with the perfect environment to build on his results in the second half of this season, the highlight being an eighth place finish with Karl Reindler at the Wilson Security Sandown 500.
“I’m pretty excited to join Brad Jones Racing next year, they are proven race winners and have a lot of history in racing,” said Blanchard.
“Working in a family team environment will be great. I think it will be well suited to my personality and the way I like to go racing, I think it will work really well. We’ve got a long family history in motorsport; same as the Jones family so being associated with a family team is good.
“Jason Bright has extensive experience in the sport and I was a teammate with Tim Slade in Formula Fords. I’ve got history with those guys and am looking forward to working with them again.”
Team boss Brad Jones believes Blanchard will be a good fit for the team, after seeing the 28-year-old progress in the second half of this season.
“I think Tim has a great racing pedigree, he is a third generation driver and his family has been around racing their whole life. I’m very excited that he is joining the team next year and I think he will fit in well with the team we have here,” Jones said.
“Looking at Tim’s history he was a state and national karting champion, won the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2007, travelled to England and was the runner up in the Formula Ford Championship there.
“Tim has been improving all season with LDM and we are really looking forward to working with him to continue his progression up the grid in 2016.”
