BJR buys fourth REC, Blanchard leases Mustangs

Munday was effectively forced out of the sport by the loss of sponsor Milwaukee Tools when the pandemic set in earlier this year, a decision to shut down his 23Red Racing programme, which operated as the fourth Tickford entry, leaving Will Davison without a drive.

While the Munday REC stayed at Tickford for the remainder of 2020, underpinning James Courtney's entry, it's long been tipped to head to BJR as part of the turbulent silly season.

Munday has now confirmed the REC has been sold to BJR, which will use it to replace the Tim Blanchard-owned REC that's been used by the squad since 2017.

Munday will also play a part in Blanchard's 2021 plans, with a lease deal for his two Tickford-built Mustangs to help form a new single-car standalone team.

Both deals were confirmed in the latest Parked Up podcast, the BJR sale coming up as part of an explanation as to why Munday pulled the pin on the Davison entry earlier this year.

“I still miss motorsport, obviously it’s been a big part of my life – setting out with a three-year goal to build a team and try at the end of three years to make it cost-neutral,” Munday said.

“I didn’t expect in my third year that we’d be smashed by a coronavirus that would take out my sponsor.

“If I had have had a longer plan for Supercars, more than the three years that I set, I think I could have survived and got through it.

“But being a three-year plan for me, and with that happening and the changes that brought into our life, it just wasn’t feasible to continue with it.

“Losing Milwaukee as my major sponsor and some of the other sponsors all wanted to defer their payments and see what happened for the rest of the season.

“Pretty tough for all the teams I guess. It was a big decision to make. I guess looking back on it, it is what it is. We’ve changed, moved on a bit, and sold my licence to Brad Jones Racing.”

The Blanchard car lease was revealed after Munday was asked if he'd ever consider a comeback.

“I don’t think you could ever rule out [a comeback],” Munday said.

“One thing in life I’ve learned to never say never. I guess in that situation for me, I’ll just see what happens in the next couple of years, or next 12 or 18 months.

“I have given a fair bit of support to the Blanchard family in their endeavours this coming season to start their own team and run it out of Box Hill in Melbourne here.

“I do have a bit of involvement with the family there to get their team up and running and they’re doing a great job at the moment.

“They’ve actually got both of my Supercars down there, which I’ve leased to them [for 2021].

“Who knows? As I say, never say never. I do have a lot of other interests outside of what I was doing in motorsport. So they take up a lot of time as well.

“I think that motorsport, as a one-person team, is very difficult where you’ve got all the responsibility of everything to do. Who knows what will happen in the future? Watch that space.”

Buying the Munday REC will allow BJR to continue its four-car programme, with Nick Percat and Todd Hazelwood locked in, and Jack Smith set to continue for a second year.

Macauley Jones is yet to be confirmed for a third-straight main game season, while the likes of Fabian Coulthard and David Reynolds have been linked to a BJR move.

The sale also leaves Tickford a REC short for the 2021 season, given James Courtney has already been confirmed and Cam Waters, Jack Le Brocq and Lee Holdsworth are all understood to have deals in place.

The most at-risk is understood to be an in-form Holdsworth, his fate potentially dependent on Supercars releasing another REC and allowing the field to expand to 25 cars.