Brad Jones Racing will carry an identical co-driving line up mixed with experience and youth into the 2023 Supercars enduros.
Seasoned pros Dale Wood and Dean Fiore will take on 16th and 15th Great Races respectively, while Jordan Boys and Jaxon Evans have three Bathurst starts between them.
They will join full-time drivers Andre Heimgartner, Bryce Fullwood, Macauley Jones and Jack Smith, who have had an up and down start to the Gen3 era racing their Chevrolet Camaro ZL1s.
Wood returns to share the flagship car #8 with Heimgartner and hopes to get more racing laps under his belt at Mount Panorama.
For a man who was searching for a five top 10 result in seven Great Race starts, he was shattered after getting caught up in the Lap 4 carnage at The Chase.
However, Wood’s previous trip to Bathurst for Brad Jones Racing was much more successful, with a P6 alongside Nick Percat in 2021.
All up 2023 will be Wood’s sixth Great Race in Brad Jones Racing colours and he will be around for at least the next two years, dropping that he will also be at the Albury squad in 2024.
Dale Wood will remain behind the wheel of car #8 with Heimgartner in 2023 and 2024.
“I am very excited to be joining BJR again for another two years. It is a place I definitely call and feel at home, I love the team and environment,” he said.
“Andre is in great form and is equally excited to jump in the R & J Batteries Gen3 Camaro.
“It is great that Sandown is back on the enduro calendar and I think it gives us a great lead up to Bathurst.”
Fiore rejoins Fullwood in car #14 after the pair was the biggest mover at the 2022 Bathurst 1000.
The duo climbed from 24th to ninth after managing to just survive all of the early-race drama.
After recording back to back Bathurst top 10s for Brad Jones Racing, Fiore hopes to keep the streak going in 2023.
Dean Fiore joined Brad Jones Racing in 2021 alongside then car #14 driver Todd Hazelwood.
“It’s my 15th time heading to the Bathurst 1000 and after last year with Bryce I’m hungrier than ever,” he said.
“I was proud of what we were able to achieve and we’re much better placed this year, with (engineer) Phil (Keed) and Bryce putting that final piece of the driver/engineer puzzle together.”
Boys made his Brad Jones Racing debut alongside Macauley Jones last year and made an immediate impact.
The co-driver finished fourth in Thursday practice last year, while on race day they put in another solid performance to climb from 22nd to 13th over the course of the 161-lap race.
Jordan Boys and Macauley Jones punched above their weight in the #96 Commodore on the Mountain last year.
Boys has plenty of Supercars experience having made some wildcard appearances for Image Racing and won a Super2 race at Mount Panorama.
Currently steering an S5000 with a best result of fourth at the season opener, Boys is determined to continue building momentum in 2023.
The Albury born racer has also pinpointed taking on the Sandown 500 for the first time as a major highlight.
“I’m really excited to be back with Macca (Jones) for a second year,” Boys said.
“We want to build off what we did at Bathurst last year, which was a strong result for us and pretty close to a top 10. That was sort of our goal going in, so good to build off that.
“Sandown for me is a bit of a bucket list thing. It is going to be pretty cool to be a part of such a historic event.”
Since making his Supercars debut at Bathurst last year, Evans has been busy racing a Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) at IMSA level and has a best finish of seventh at Sebring.
Porsche Kiwi Jaxon Evans returns to BJR for the enduros.
The Kiwi and Smith failed to finish at Mount Panorama, but got to his as high as sixth on the leaderboard.
Now with his maiden Supercars experience under his belt, Evans is eager to show off what he has learnt at both Sandown and Bathurst.
“I’m really excited to be heading back to the Supercars Championship, alongside Jack and the SCT Logistics crew,” he said.
“Last year’s event was a massive learning curve and a career goal that I was able to tick off.
“The addition of the Sandown 500 hopefully means that, with a little more seat time we will go to the mountain with some confidence
“Of course this year will be quite different with the new Gen3 cars, but it’s a new challenge.
“I’m eager to get behind the wheel of the Camaro in the near future.”
With Evans overseas, he will miss the co-driver test held at Winton on May 31 where Wood, Boys, Fiore, plus the full time drivers will be on show.
