Cleland rates the new BJR package.

by Matthew Agius

John Cleland is currently in talks with Australian V8 Supercar Series team Brad Jones Racing to continue as the team's number one endurance race recruit in 2006, and the Scot reckons the squad could be the surprise package of 2006.

Cleland, who has driven for BJR since 2001 when it was the OzEmail Racing Team, has been supporting his two sons in British rallying and racing over the past year, but is keen to continue racing in Australia during two of the most popular races on the calendar.

"I'm really talking to the boys down in Australia again about going back out to compete in the Sandown long-distance race and the Bathurst race again, which will be my thirteenth year," Cleland told Crash.net Radio.

"So that could be lucky for me - who knows?"

Coming to Australia on a yearly basis is something John Cleland really enjoys. In his opinion the Australian V8 Supercar Series is one of the top championships to race in for a Touring Car driver as he sees the series become one of the best control-formula motorsports in the world.

"Considering there's two manufacturers - you've got Ford and you've got Holden [or General Motors] - there's forty odd cars that can turn up, sometimes they need to pre-qualify (although pre-qualifying has been abolished from the series), but you've got any one of twenty people who can win a race, and frequently do," he said of V8 Supercars.

"You could have half a second covering the top twenty-odd cars at some of the rounds, and the good thing about it is that they all carry forward-facing cameras - not to record - but it's a live link back to the clerk of the course, so when the guy taps somebody up the back, what happens is that within two or three minutes - you immediately get a drive through penalty - you're in!

"That's what I think makes the championship such a good, competitive series and it just goes from strength to strength - it's amazing."

As a pivotal part of Brad Jones Racing's endurance campaigns for the past five years, Cleland can see the team becoming a more competitive force in Australia's premier race series. After a dismal 2005, where only a handful of top ten finishes were recorded by BOC Gases-sponsored outfit.

Despite this, BJR's endurance pedigree is better than that of some former championship-winning teams and is regarded as one of the most competitive Bathurst outfits. Highlighting some of the changes he feels will benefit BJR in 2006, Cleland is looking forward to perhaps running with the team again this year.

"The odd thing is that the team have struggled a little bit in the sprint races for some reason over the last few years, but when it comes to long-distance races and particularly Bathurst, they appear able to turn up the wick," said Cleland.

"Brad (Jones) and I nearly won the race a couple of years ago, I think we were three seconds behind Mark Skaife who won the race eventually, and each year for the last ten years I've been in the top ten seven times - five of those with Brad Jones' team.

"I'm pretty happy that if I can get the chance to go back there that they've got John Russell who's an ex-Prodrive engineer - he's going to redesign the cars, you've got Stone Brothers Engines which are the ones that drove Marcos Ambrose and last year Russell Ingall to win the championship, the Triple Eight car with Craig Lowndes has got them, and now Brad Jones' team.

"So they've got the right engines, they've got a good engineer, the tyres are one single format of tyre and hopefully they can produce a result out of that package and hopefully I'll be part of it when it comes to Bathurst this year."

If the new ensemble of chassis and engine can deliver the goods for Brad Jones Racing and Team BOC in 2006, there is a significant chance that both Jones and team-mate John Bowe will be one of the favourites to win at Bathurst.

Brad Jones Racing is set to launch their 2006 V8 Supercar campaign in late February - around a month before the season-opening Clipsal 500 on the streets surrounding Adelaide's parklands.