Murray Now

In the regional centre of Albury, New South Wales, lies a massive V8 supercar team with one of the strongest reputations in Australian motorsport. Brad Jones Racing (BJR) with brothers Brad and Kim at the helm have won ten national titles in five different categories over 17 years of professional motorsport.

Murray Now recently spoke with Chris Clark, General Manager of the company. Chris started working for Brad and Kim in the late 90’s whilst the company were racing for Audi.

The beginning of V8 racing for BJR began with Ford. This partnership endured seven years, then a shortfall in support lead to a transition to Holden. During this time Chris was employed, part of his role was to take the company in a new direction and build on its reputation. There had been staff issues and the training processes weren’t working, leading to a high staff turnover, with no succession planning to follow on with.

“In the Australian motorsport industry skilled professionals are in short supply,” Chris explains. “The decision was made to start the process of searching for skilled workers overseas. With motor racing being such a competitive and specialized industry, it is vital to not only find staff with the accurate skills, but also a commitment to the nature of motor sport.

Securing the right staff ensures our local guys that are employed with us, get the best training and develop their skills to a world standard. BJR are also mindful to invest our resources to minimise staff shortages and retention rates.”

Training and professional development are important at BJR, Chris has developed training packages on site to help with engineering computer programming. BJR regards investment in staff a great asset and valuable resource within the organisation as well as supporting staff to be all they can be. “It gives those (staff) an opportunity to excel in their profession. We give them all the tools they want or need to build a race car”. BJR are continually buying and updating equipment and realise this is an expense that is important and valuable to the workers and the ongoing success of BJR.

When Chris found suitable employees for the job, it was often the upheaval to another country that saw them fall through. In saying that, Chris has had great success finding CNC Machinists, Engineers and Operations staff from overseas. Current employees for BJR are skilled professionals sourced from the UK and South Africa. They have made the life change to Australia, accompanied by their respective families. “Skilled migration programs have been critical to building up the success of the organisation,” states Chris.

While speaking of the benefits of overseas commodities, it is the opposite when talking about the mechanical parts of a V8 race car. BJR manufacture and produce most parts in house rather than buying from overseas at a cheaper price, this ensures quality control is at its highest. Majority of parts of the race car are built on site, apart from the roll cages, which BJR hope to build in the near future.

BJR are at a stage where they have the capacity and resources to make these parts locally, giving them the ability to become self sustainable. The company currently provides parts to a large portion of the HoldenV8 racing team.

The future of BJR lies in the young enthusiasts that are coming up the ranks looking for a career in motorsport. Some are even learning locally; completing the Certificate III & IV in Motorsport at Wodonga TAFE. Chris says “having a resource pool so close is an incredible asset.” Possibly one will be the next champion at Mount Panorama!

For more information www.teamboc.com.au