News
NEW DRIVER CONFIRMED AT BJR
Smith 18 hails from Townsville in sunny North Queensland and is eager to get behind the wheel to start his tin top driving career. After extensive experience racing karts Josh has been searching for that next step on his journey to the main V8 Supercar Series and is ready to learn how these cars work now. He will start today with his first test day at Phillip Island before the season opener at Sandown on the 1-3 April.
Rather than continuing down the open-wheel route he is stepping into one of the ex-Jason Bright and Andrew Jones driven V8 Supercars that has successful history within the sport. Coming on board as the initial naming rights sponsor is Australian Hydrographic Surveys as well as support from Revolution Racegear and Kadco.
Josh Smith:
“Working with BJR is a huge deal for me they are such a well-known team. When I told my friends they have this reaction like wow; they know its serious; it is giving me the platform to step up and work towards my goals. To have Andrew Jones as a mentor is really great. Ive visited the workshop and spent a lot of time talking to him on the phone hes been a great support so far.
“Ive been racing karts for ten years now. Ive raced at over 40 tracks across the world including the European Championships in Spain and Italy the Super Nationals in Las Vegas and the Pro Karting Series in New Zealand and the Asia Pacific Championships in Macau. Its been a great experience and travelling to so many different tracks you learn quite a lot.
“This year the car and tracks will be completely new to me. Ive only had a test in a Formula Ford and Dunlop Series car at Winton so the full day at Phillip Island will be a big day out. Whenever you talk to someone who has raced there they really rate it as one of the best circuits to go. The fact we get to support the V8 Supercar Series when they travel to Winton and Ipswich is really cool. We get to showcase ourselves in front of a huge crowd.
“Its going to be a big year for me new car new tracks; there is a lot to learn. The crew is young as well some of the guys have experience and some like me will be learning as they go. I first want to get comfortable with the car and build results from there. To say Im excited would be an understatement.
Brad Jones:
“Its going to be a big year for Josh after coming from go-karts this is something totally new for him so the learning curve will be quite a steep one. In saying that weve had a lot of experience with this car so well do everything we can to support him and make sure he can get a really good grasp on the car.
“Andrew Jones will be mentoring Josh and well have our Dunlop Series crew working alongside him with a few of the talented Wodonga Motorsport TAFE students so its an opportunity to develop their skills together. Not working through the open wheel categories is something different but if you look at the likes of Scott McLaughlin it has the potential to work out really well. Joshs intention is to be a V8 Supercar competitor so this direction makes perfect sense.