Holden Commodore for Team Vodafone in 2010
July 29, 2009 by Matt Brogan
Reigning V8 Supercar and three-time Bathurst 1000 Champions, TeamVodafone, and its drivers, Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup, will race Holden Commodores from 2010.
Holden Executive Director Sales, Marketing and Aftersales, Alan Batey made the announcement at a press conference held at GM Holden headquarters in Melbourne today.
“Holden has a long and proud history in motorsport that stretches back over 40 years and today’s announcement is an exciting step into the next chapter,” Mr Batey said. “Our commitment and passion for motorsport has not waived. Today we are making a clear statement on how much we value this sport which is also a very smart, responsible sponsorship decision. We are very excited about working with TeamVodafone and are thrilled to welcome back both Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup to the Holden family.”
TeamVodafone was formed out of the UK-based Triple Eight Race Engineering, winning multiple British Touring Car Championships with the factory GM Vauxhall team.
In its five short years in the V8 Supercar Championship Series, TeamVodafone has evolved from series debutants into the category powerhouse.
From 2004 to the end of last season, TeamVodafone had scored 12 pole positions, won 24 championship rounds and 38 individual race victories, including three straight Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 titles and the 2008 V8 Supercar Driver and Teams Championships.
In 2009, TeamVodafone has continued its impressive run scoring three pole positions, winning nine out of 12 races year to date and again leading both the Driver and Teams Championships after six of 14 Championship events.
“We are delighted to join the Holden family,” TeamVodafone Managing Director, Roland Dane said. “Triple Eight Race Engineering started running with General Motors in the UK, winning many races and Championships, and it was only an anomaly due to circumstances that we did not race Holdens when we began in V8 Supercars. I have always wanted to put that right when the opportunity arose, which it now has.”
Dane said its association with GM was quite emotional.
“Although our relationship with GM in Europe is due to end, again due to circumstances, we recognise that we would not have got to where we are without them,” continued Mr Dane. “It is an emotive topic for Triple Eight and we feel that as we have grown with GM that we should continue to live together with them, here with Holden.”
Last week Dane confirmed that the team had re-signed with major naming rights sponsor Vodafone for another three years, and that Lowndes and Whincup would also be with the team through to the end of the 2012 season.
Reigning V8 Supercar Champion Jamie Whincup said he was excited by the prospect of returning to Holden.
“Personally, I am very excited, I started my V8 Supercar career in Holden teams and didn’t quite get the results I wanted so now I have the chance to rectify that,” Whincup said. “Triple Eight is a cohesive and dedicated team and I am very confident that we can continue to record similar results when we climb aboard our new Commodores to start the 2010 season. I look forward to working with Holden and hope that we can shoot for further championship success together.”
The V8 Supercar Championship Series is Australia‟s premier motor racing category, the category racing in front of approximately 1.5 million people over the course of a 15 event season with a cumulative national television audience of approximately 20 million.
After seven events on the 2009 calendar attendances are up over seven per cent on last year, with over 168,000 attending the inaugural Dunlop Townsville 400 recently – TV audiences up 11 per cent over the corresponding round in 2008.
Source: Holden
Tags: holden commodore
This is the beginning of Ford’s step away from V8 Supercars. With the Falcon eventually getting ecoboost engines (going down the turbo charging route) there is no much sense in spending millions of dollars in V8 sponsorship.
Oh bugga……….they will be replaced by other competent drivers (as there a few around) with teams that might pose a challenge.
Interesting to see “two timing” Lowndes how he will be perceived as dare say some backlash…for example bit like being sitting member for Labor in parliament and then down track becoming a sitting member for Liberal in parliament; only to then going back to Labor (hard to imagine and no pun intended on either political party)
Well thats the end of watching V8 supercar for me, will basically be a dunnydore race format. What idiots! booorrrriiiinnnnggggggg……..
MY WORST NIGHTMARE!!!
Ah well just proves once again, when Holden can’t win races they poach Ford’s best!
“TV audiences up 11 per cent over the corresponding round in 2008″
What a load of crap. Channel 7 and its puppet, er, clown, Matthew White have ruined V8 Supercar racing. How in the hell can they determine how many ppl watch V8 Supercars. It’s all smoke and mirrors dribble.
welcome Craig Lowndes back to the Holden family where he begun. Ford was lucky they got him in the first place, but its Fords fault for sacking the TeamVodafone for silly reasons like have red on the cars. bloody idiots.
If you can’t beat ‘em Buy ‘em.
V8supercars have become a farce.
I have supported the format for many years but cannot do it any more.
Over and out.
Holden had to poach Ford’s best? May i remind you that both these drivers began there V8 Supercar careers at holden.
You may see a 1 or 2 new Ford teams now. Rumour is that Holden have gotten the funding for vodafone but stopping their support of Kelly Racing, Gary Rogers & Brad Jones Racing. We’ll take Gary Rogers any day.
I wonder what Lowndes really thinks of going back to Holden, cos they really didn’t treat him well the year before he left.
@The Associate
Ford only have there self to blame for sacking TeamVodafone, no one planned this. Lowndes was coming back to Holden anyway after the end of the year. But Jamie Whincup, wow the tables turn lol. Getting sacked because the Vodafone cars looked like Holdens. Well now they will be holdens.
WEll this move is the end of my support for V8 supercars. it has become a farce, and there are better and more interesting motor sport categories to watch that don’t get the same coverage. In fact this week I’ve found the oval track in America more interesting than V8 supercars.
Who cares
the cars are the same anyway.
I doubt Ford will provide sponsor $$$ to any current Holden teams to come across as I believe they are moving away from V8 Supercar’s long term.
Question remains for at least the next few years is how competitive the V8SC series will be when 70% of the field will be Holden? Some of the current Ford teams have no backing from Ford so do they switch over time?
Where does this leave Ford Aus in terms of it’s marketing (if it had any!) with regards to its current lineup of performance based Falcon’s?
I have been a fan for years but with Ford reducing their funding what does this mean?
I like the swings and roundabouts of not really knowning who is going to win, but with 10 fords against 20 Holdens next year what will be the point. Plus 4 of the fords that race now are 888 cars anyway so if you were to work on the worst case the 10 vs 20 might be on the good side.
FPR and Stones had better pull there fingers out
This is the short coming of the v8 supercar board not finding other manufactures to have a look in.
This is now a game of monopoly the lion might have the edge.
Look out for the future V8\’s focus vs cruze vs corolla vs mazda 3 etc etc
The Associate Said:
July 29th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
MY WORST NIGHTMARE!!!
Ah well just proves once again, when Holden can’t win races they poach Ford’s best!
And I say: Associate please pinch yourself you’re dreaming.
Remember this day…
Jan 19, 2001
“Months of speculation have finally been put to rest with the recent announcement that Craig Lowndes will drive a Ford prepared by Fred Gibson in the Shell V8 Supercar Series for 2001.”
And did you read This Caradvice article with your eyes closed. And I quote “Reigning V8 Supercar Champion Jamie Whincup said he was excited by the prospect of returning to Holden.”
I could be wrong but I weren’t Mr Peter Perfect and Lowndesy of Holden Stock. Associate you’re scrambled… They weren’t poached… (egg pun for the uninitiated) ;)
Rogeroverandout, its Fords fault, get over it mate,
Showing their true colors- if you read between the lines of the quotes in various coverage can you really blame ford for dumping these guys? All of them sing to the tune of holden (with the exception of lowndes as he is still under contract). they have been waiting for the opportunity to jump ship.
Purely a marketing decision to adopt the blue teams….. end of the day we were in the grips of the toughest times the car industry had seen in years, cut backs had to be made. Interesting to see where government motors are going to get the funds to support this move and who they upset doing it? and how they can justify such huge expenditure when GM are in the grips of chapter 11 and aus and us funding!
The one team i still continue to feel for is DJR – finally think they are onto a good thing with 888 cars and they jump ship…. that will be a bigger dissappointment if they go!
Slapppppp… owww. Okay “Holden” I’m over it. You may be on the right track. More than a little blame is not lost on Holden for losing these good men in the first place. Fast-Forward 8 years; Full-circle to Ford making the same mistakes…
they tend to always be around on caradvice – but gee can;t wait till next year when all the holden hideaways come out! Holden’s commitment is if you cant beat em buy em! will truly b a farce if they pull funding from GRM or similiar in order to do it….. sorest losers getting round…. prob even worse than collingwood fans ha ha
The cars are virtually near indentical in specifications and dumbasses get into shouting matches over the two ‘makes’! WTF? This shows how blind some people really are. It’s a sheetmetal series, that is all. I’d rather watch reliant robin racing anyday.
i must say James Courtney is a crazy man, at least Ford still have him. even tho his down in the standing he will still be the man to beat on race day. Johnson will get his turn to one day. even tho i love holden with a passion since Brocky, i say go to both teams yeah?
Hope for there sake they can get the same performance from the commodore that there getting from the falcon.Does this also mean most ford V8 supercar supporters will be cheering on Johnson,Winterbottom and Courtney now.
First my man Rusty leaves me for the darkside now Vodafone has left cause Ford wouldnt support the number one team currently.What a dumbarse mistake Ford made last year when they said no more funding for you Vodafone or you DJR…
One word for this happening “money” .
Look at the difference a year has made by not sharing info between Ford sponsored teams ,my new boy Coldbum is doing no where as well after Vodafone got the kick and took their car set up knowledge with them . They must be sharing info with DJR cause those boys are rocking on just fine without Ford by their side.
Another mistake in Motorsport Ford well bloody done. Lowndes was promised a Championship with Ford when he entered them,never came to fruition though did it ,doubt it will happen under the Lions flag either ,sorry Craig I think you lost that edge. Im sure Lowndes wont quit complaining on whos blocking him on the track though.he he he
Will be interested to see whats said this week at Sandown , look forward to Rusty’s tongue in cheek reply when asked.
im a one eyed holden fan but is it going to be v8 holden series there will be no fords left. holden 1st 2nd and 3rd?
WOW the new pics are up, HOT HOT HOT!
Meh, i stopped watching since Marcos Ambrose left the series, but saying that, this was always going to happen, triple 8 would of jumped shift earlier if craig wasnt contracted to Ford till end of this year…
im not sure about that matt, ford still have some good drivers, Johnson,Winterbottom and Courtney etc.
How come there’s no nod to the Aussie tax payer?
Holden should kiss the feet of every Austalian in appreciation.
Yeah Matt they have to pull the same grunt from the Red Team they are out of the blue to do that . Lets see how that works out for them before we start handing out trophies.
This is all dollars and cents. We have our Holden/Ford teams, well watch F1, you’ll be surprices how many team/manufacturer changes there are.
I think this will lead to Nascar style of racing, only we want be going around in circles like in the States. This type of racing will allow more brands to race, Toyotas, Nissans, Hondas etc. I’m sure many of the purists will disagree but to me this will be the first step in the transition to Silhouette class racing. Because then it doesn’t matter whether the manufactured cars are FWD or RWD.
Just a gentle warning to keep the comments on topic.
For more information on the CarAdvice comments Code of Conduct, click on the link below.
http://www.caradvice.com.au/18.....f-conduct/
Thank you.
Lets see if he can keep that smile next year.
Tony M, we’ll be basically going back to the old days again, dont think thats going to happen m8.
I wonder if that SS is what they’ll be racing?
I must admit, I do enjoy watching the 12 hour Bathurst for manufactured cars, “the old days”. V8 Supercars will become irrelevant over the next couple of years, especially with the new engines which are not petrol V8’s. As for the drivers, they follow the money and good luck to them. They are world class at what they do, whether they drive for Holden or Ford.
Hypothetically, what would you say if Ford were allowed to race a worked 2.7 turbo diesel with 300kw and 600Nm and maybe 3 pitstops over the 1000km race at Bathurst.
Hey what happened about ‘FRONT SPLINTER GATE” I thought Holden were the ones complaining at Vodafone about it.All must be forgiven :) Aint love grand over at Holden ………..
lol bill, yeah i better tone down a little ;)
great chatting with everyone. g2g.
will read more updates later.
cheers.
hahaha Baddass………
I bet HRTs nose will be out of place when wincup starts flogging the factory team. I think holden know these guys are good and are happy for them to carry the flag
They changed to Holden because they offered team vodafone $3 million so u would be stuipd not to take and ford doesn’t even back them so it’s ford fault
V8 SuperCars are the best thing to happen to Australian Motorsport. Internationally respected. Granted, Not without its faults & flaws…
BUT!
What\’s with the:- ATTITUDES…
Can\’t beat\’em buy em… there will be no Ford\’s left… Kiss the ATO… It’s a sheetmetal series… sorest losers getting round… LOL at the Bogans who watch this sport (that\’s original)… and the Biggest Cop-out \”I\’m not watching v8 SuperCars again.
Like many others I love the Competition. The Intensity. And of Course the Crashes.
What will you watch instead???
A)Bernie\’s F1,
B)10 Laps of 500cc OR
C)getting dizzy with NASCAR?
We… (if I may dare to pretend to speak on behalf of the silent majority)… recognise the fact that the v8 cars that run around aren\’t AT ALL the average, off the Shelf Variety. I don\’t drive a v8. Nor when I drive do I think I am one of them… (well maybe a little bit).
Despite the Politics and the faults the Australian V8 SuperCars Series remains the Motorsport to watch. It could even get better with some foresight.
Keep watching if, like me you want racing that is Fast, Fiery, Fraught, Furious, Fair, Fn Fantastic……… and Loud.
Good enough for me.
Upsetting news,
oh well what else can u do but wish team 88 bad luck for next season. And wankcup is already wearing a holdenwoo top in the pic, u prick. look at your success ford gave u. lowndes, wankcup could of switched teams. he dosnt deserve to win the championship in blue any more since he couldnt wait to get that holdenwoo top on.
like i sadi before all u can do is wish them bad luck for next season :)
hope to have some laughs.
Not gonna watch it anymore. Hope Ford pulls out soon, spending millions on this sport is stupid!
This is really a big deal for the series, and not in a good way.
This is a bigger deal than most think.
Yes, the bottom line is its probably fords fault for not supporting their 2 top performing teams (888 & DJR).
Also some blame must be placed on Tony Cochraine for allowing the series to become Holden heavy again like it was in the early 2000’s. This will turn away the fans that have only just gotten over the massively heavy HRT dominence of years just passed.
I would assume Uncle Tom has nothing to do with this team???? Lowndes wouldnt be in it if he did.
I also want to know where the $$$ are coming from to fund this. Holden is in enough trouble already and HRT has publicly made note of that. How now can they afford this.
This could turn to turmoil. I can see a lot of fisty cuffs coming up if a certain teams find themselves inturn cut from Holdens funding.
Also they can say all they want about deep down wearing GM on their sleeve, but the underlying thing is holden was offering big dollars, and 888 saw this as a move to show some spite.
It would have been big dollars and a bloody good package offered for 888 to throw away their income stream from other ford teams aswell as all their past engineering work.
The reason they didnt turn holden this year is not because Lowndes was on Ford terms, but they realised the true cost of trash canning their hard work
Also to note for those that dont know, Manufacturers can no longer contract a driver.
Holden’s previous and current MD’s both said that if the series doesnnt improve, they would pull out and retract their support. Now that Ford might also be pulling out what will happen to Australia’slast remaining form of motorsport. C’mon guys we need V8 racing no matter how low class it may be. Otherwise would you rather watch 6 hours of luge on saturday’s.
Also on a different tune……..
I find CA’s reference to this stat quite amusing since not so long ago on another V8SC related article they were saying quite the opposite suggesting V8SC popularity was on the slide
QUOTE………
“After seven events on the 2009 calendar attendances are up over seven per cent on last year, with over 168,000 attending the inaugural Dunlop Townsville 400 recently – TV audiences up 11 per cent over the corresponding round in 2008.”
Too bad that stat wasnt found before they made a fool of themselves on a previous article
Boo!!!
y boys y i was a big fan not now
Who’s the 2 timer Naughtyius Maximus? I bet you barrack for Lowndes while he’s racing Fords.
This is purely a commercial decision for 888 Racing., They need a car manufacturer who is going to support them for the long term. Do you really think they have sunk so much money into the team to change makes just for the hell of it.
Stick with Ford you fit right in.
kebbles
Given that Lowndes left Holden to come to Ford and the results 888 delivered Ford in V8 supercars, it simply astounds me that Ford failed to back this team.
No one cared that the bloody car was red, yellow or blue, it looked cool, won Bathurst and gave Ford some credibility after a decade in the V8 supercar wilderness.
That Ford has allowed this to happen really does express how little they truely understand the mantality of both V8 Supercar fans and their customers.
These guys were champions who made young fans (who probabaly can’t even afford a car yet) dream of parking an XR8 or GT in the garage, and now those same impressionable fans will follow their heros….And so will I!
It is a sad day for the Blue Oval and it is a great day for the General.
I will still whath it but will not go for team vodafone
I think it was just a case of Lowndes and Whincup not wanting to drive 2.0 L T 4 cylinder 170 kw Falcons as company cars, when Holdens got a real mans 260 kw testosterone SS to fang around in!!
Rick,
You’ve forgotten about the Small Block Supercharged “Coyote” V8 replacing the Boss for 2010/11.
Munch Munch Gen 4’s for lunch.
PS. Ford are still keeping the I6 as an engine for the Falcon, just adding another engine as a greener option (supposedly) anyway, they scooped up $250 Million in grants from the Federal government for it and kept Jobs in addition.
The FG is a winning package, The team play a big part but the FG shape is a slippery one that Holden have fought with AVESCO to have changed. Looks like they bought a team to try and turn their luck around. Losing looks bad.
Geeeee……….sad new for Ford fans. This is/was there major team. Oh, well. It was ford’s fault. They pulled out sponsoring for tripple eight. Bloody hogs breath badges on the front for pete’s sake!!!!!!
It’s gonna be hard to see a Vodafone Commodore though? I mean wow! Will they still have the same colour scheme I reckon?
Team Vodafone are gonna be, beating HRT. I wonder how HRT feel? I reckon they should do an interview on them or something, lol.
I’m a little disappointed, but more concerned that Supercars is just becoming a one make series. Already the majority of teams are Holden, despite Fords success in the series. I can definitely see Ford moving away from Supercars, for the number of V8’s they sell, they get poor return on investment. They have other motorsports, including ARC and Formula Ford, whereas Holden only has V8 Supercars. Ford is trying to flee that public image of the manufacturer of petrol guzzling V8’s that Rick is clearly attracted to. In the long term, leaving V8 Supercars would probably increase their brand worth not reduce it, due to the image change.
Hell, this all-Ozzie issue already gathered lots of comments – it only broke about 5 hours ago. Just shows how inward-looking and parochial the bulk of contributors to this site are.
Reality is, this is the beginning of the end of V8 Supercars. It’s a dinosaur series that reflects a dinosaur industry (yes, the Australian car manufacturing business). In five years time we’ll be mourning both of them.
Absolutely disgusting, Holden can’t win a Bathurst or a championship, so they buy one… still it’s one thing to have good drivers and a good team, but if you don’t have a good car, there is no point.
Shame on Raland Dane
i dnt see lowndes in any of the pics he’s probably to busy trying to get out of the contract he signed. It would be really cool if lowndes went back to fpr and take over steven richards spot who isnt going that well anymore but hay i guess thats only a wish
As a Holden and V8 Supercar fan, I’m not really too sure what to think of this.
Is this good for Holden or bad? I know that the cars are very similar and it doesn’t really matter what panels they have on them and this a comment Roland Dane made late last year when there was talk of a 3rd manufacturer coming in to the category. He said they are only panels and If Toyota would put up the $$$ then Aurion panels will be bolted on.
However, will this mean that the current #1 Holden team being HRT currently be forced to play 2nd fiddle to 888?
I really hope that because of 888 becoming a Holden team and Holden Motorsport giving them some money now, how will this effect other Holden supported team? There has already been talk today about Kelly Racing and GRM possibly loosing their funding. Will Ford now try and entice KR or GRM to Ford? Or will they keep their current funding at just FPR and SBR?
All at the same time while Tony Cochrane is trying to reduce the category to 28 cars from 30.
Will also be interesting to see what will happen to the 888 customer cars, being DJR and PCR. Will they move to SBR cars like has happened with Jason Bright’s team?
So many questions, and I guess only time will tell to what the answers are…
I know Ford caused this by not supporting their best team – what were they thinking. But I will never support Holden teams or drivers while I am still vertical and will refuse to watch a Holden dominated series. Also hear that Holden will pull the funding on the Kellys, Jones (serves them right for switching sides) and Morris to pay Triple8. It would be good Karma if Holden goes bust soon and Dane and Co are left out in the cold.
This is a real hard issue to address.
The series itself is a massive hit and just keeps getting more and more popular, but what do you do when one of the ingredients changes???
Ford is a major element in the series (like Holden), but if Ford shows lack of interest what is V8SC to do.
At the moment Holden seems like the only one with an open cheque book for V8’s.
Ford is saying enough is enough we need to focus on business too, but the effect of Ford doing so now that V8SC is on such a high is massive.
Still waiting to see how Holden fund this though.
Not even Holden know how they are going to fund it as yet.
They have not ruled out chopping existing Holden teams.
The words from the boss’s mouth is that they grabbed at the Vodafone opportunity while they could, now they need to sit and see how they source funds.
Im really feeling there will be some Holden casualties.
Irony is great too isnt it???
Since Holdens complaints about 888’s great performance was laughed at by AVESCO, they decide to buy them.
Also since Roland Dane in reply referred to Holden as sore losers, its also funny that he now has for some reason wanted to join the sore losers…$$$…$$$…
Mick,
Ford wont want in on GRM or Kellys etc.
Why would they want in on them when they wanted nothing to do with the best team in the series????
I know the Ford motorsport boss has rocks in his head, but seriously he isnt that stupid????
The only way Kellys or Gary will come to Ford will be a move out of spite.
888 Got poached with money and spite, Kellys and GRM will only have a motivator in spite on their side which makes any switch harder
slow the fords down once again. To many championship wins by ford always sees holden stealing ford drivers. Holden just dont know how to win.
Ford 21 championships
Holden 15 championships
Andrew M,
Good point about Ford not wanting a winning team. The Kelly’s have some good engineering tools that they are building up, I guess the only reason Ford may want them is to fill the gap that 888 will be leaving.
Bring back the old ‘Race on Sunday, Buy on Monday’ Strategy, and also bring back a bit of loyalty to the sport……. Oh only in a perfect world…….
Oh dear that is bad news for Ford. Even worse does anyone remember the interview with Dick Johnson in Darwin after it was announced their Ford funding was to be cut also. He was asked if he would go to Holden too and he didn’t exactly say he wouldn’t !! Won’t be too long before this is a one make series. Losing interest pretty fast now and if DJR go to Holden that will be it for me as with many others here.
Andrew M,you said:
I find CA’s reference to this stat quite amusing since not so long ago on another V8SC related article they were saying quite the opposite suggesting V8SC popularity was on the slide
I’ve just gone through ALL the OzTam figures for the past 2 years. It’s freely availble on their website.
If, as this article says – which has clearly been taken from a press release – the TV viewing is 20 million cumulative over 15 rounds, that makes it 1.33million per round being viewed, yes?
Why is it then that not once – I repeat – NOT ONCE has V8SC ever featured in the top 20 programs watched, even though the top 20 regularly have viewer figures of 1.1-1.5 million? I’ll tell you, because V8SC’s popularity is on the slide!
No one cares about V8SC anymore. They’d rather be outside enjoying the sunshine with their families than watching a sheetmetal series!
I just love reading Caradvice bloggs. Its so funny. The siur grapes from the Ford lovers. They bag the crap out of Holden (Dunnydores, Holdenwoo, crap Holde quality, Holdens going bankrupt, Holdens being sold to China, Holdens going to become a full importer etc etc etc). They write all these totaly BS articles as if they are gospel. Then we get THIS FANTASTIC NEWS! I LOVE IT! Lowndes back in a Holden. Australias best driver in Whincup BACK in a Holden! Now its “oh if Holden can’t beat them then they buy them, Oh I’m not supporting V8’s any more.
Well you bunch of sook’s then bugger off and have a cry. Holden didn’t buy T8, Ford lost them. They pulled money from the best and most succesful team currently running in the category and gave it to their own underacheiving team with one of the worst drivers (Steven Richards) and to Stone Brothers that only won races when they had Ambrose and Ingall driving for them. Gee this is all the work of some brilliant strategist. Oh we can’t support T8 coz their cars are the wrong colour. Brilliant work that! So all you Ford sooks, watch next year as Holden clean up with that nice big NUMBER 1 on the side of the HOLDEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Quite the opposite really, I look forward to watchin Team Vodafone and Holden fail miserably next year.
As a Ford follower I was disappointed to hear this but not surprised after the funding cut backs last year.
More disappointed the Loundes is going back to Holden, I understand he began his motor racing there but it was a very frosty relationship he had towards the end,alot of it had to do with his European racing and conflicts with Tom Walkinshaw I believe. His hero may have been Peter Brock but I’m led to believe growing up he was a bigger supporter of Fords, evidenced by his prized posession,a GT Cortina, a car that Holden wouldn’t allow him to drive in public whilst he was under contract to them. At least Ford let him drive the Torana around Bathurst during the Brocky tribute.
As for Ford and motorsport, they should just pull the pin on the V8 SCC, from a business point of view, the old saying of Win on Sunday sell on Monday doesn’t work any more. They could use the extra cash to design and develop better cars. Alternatively they could just coax back Ambrose from the US.
Sorry, but this all comes down to Ford decision to support SBR over 888 because 888 refused to paint their cars blue. Epic Fail!
Interesting observation that there appear to be no pics of, no sign of and no quotes from, Lowndes. Where os Lowndsie??
As a Ford and 888 Fan i am sad to see this. but i can understand why they have jumped ship. if ford is not going to back them then why stay with ford?. i agree with Lynchy on. Win on Sunday sell on Monday doesn’t work any more.
Marc, interesting you went through the OzTam figures.
The 1.3 Million viewer figure is the total for Sat and Friday. So about 650,000 each day.
Lowndes is still a ford driver as far as I know and couldn’t be there because of contract.
I find it interesting that some, but not all of the holden fans are saying that it will be great to see 888 or what ever Holden clean up next year, ah yes it will make great tv watching ZZZZZZZZZZ.
The saying in politics is that “the government is only as strong as the opposition”, if you have no real opposition to race except other holdens what is the point of turning up or watching?
Well the writing was on the wall, it will be a single brand championship shortly which will spell the end of V8 supercars. Ford are in all sorts of trouble in this country and won`t be building a Falcon shortly.
the obvious motivation is money here – great example for the next generation. i wont be making the switch – I’ll find another ford team to cheer for (maybe the wilson security team boys that took the time out to come to my daughters school when they were in town).
i guess it is befitting that the most arrogant team join the arrogant side of the fence…you suck whinecup and low-ndes, you’ve not thought about your fans at all, just your pockets
Charles says ” charles Says:
July 29th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Well the writing was on the wall, it will be a single brand championship shortly which will spell the end of V8 supercars. Ford are in all sorts of trouble in this country and won`t be building a Falcon shortly.”
he he he yeah well Will/Charles you said it would be the demise of Holden a month ago dude,make your mind up ! FWD Falcon to come says Charles………woooooooooo,all voodoo in Charles/Wilsl lounge room I think.
hmmmm wont be long till we have no more v8sc series. I think ford is quite smart because they are making it through the gfc and relised that they arnt getting the returns from the money they put in.
I would like to become awear of how ford are actually in trouble?
I would like to see a new series started with stock ss and xr8 or gt and clubsports with roll cages and the latest saftey devices installed. This would put pressure on the manufactures to produce good long lasting parts which would only be good for us the consumers
Just wait Ross R it will happen, it might not be next year but the end is coming, so get use to it.
I knew that here would be a sequel to your fictitious fantasy story about Ford; Holden and the V8 Supercars Charles….
[or is that Dr Seuss?]
If the sort of comments from fans on this blog is anything to go by, no wonder Ford is failing in this country and going down hill fast.
You Ford numbties need to have a good hard look at yourselves.
Your comments would put off anybody from buying or supporting their products.
Heres a look into the future, Ford will pull out of V8 Supercars which will leave a single car championship. So that leaves Holdens racing Holdens, how boring. I mean the racing is boring enough as it is. So that will be the end of V8 supercars. Off the track Ford will be importing the Taurus and the Commodore will be built in China. With Tariffs reduced to 5% next year and Tax payers funding turned off in 2015, the end of Manufacturing cars in this country will be over.
Charles the V8 Supercars came about as a result of “evolution”.
Back in the late 80s early 90s when crowd attendances fell and costs to maintain what were known as Group As became too much for even the factory teams to manage[including Freddy Gibson and his Winfield GT-Rs]
The governing body looked for an alternative.. something that the fans wanted to [and would pay their hard earned] to see.. that is close competitive racing etc
Therefore; if a similar situation happens with the V8 Supercars as what happened with the Group As – don’t be surprised if AVESCO look at an alternative….
Which they are with their cars of the Future” program which at this stage will involve teams racing smaller sedans/hatchbacks such as the Holden Cruze and the Ford Focus…. which kind of dipells your beliefs about there being a one make category.
BTW: the Cars of the Future aren;t expected to replace the V8s but in fact compliment them; that is race with them in a sub-category… similar to the production car series
I just love some of the ramblings and picked-straight-out-of-my-bu tt-crack type “stats” and *cough cough* “facts” some of you numnuts post in these blogs. Things like Ford is going down hill fast and wont be around blah blah even though they are the only local manufacturer to have picked up sales and gained market share month on month whislt the others are doing the opposite. And conveniently forgetting actual facts like Holden losing major export markets like the US and being owned by a recently bankrupted parent company thats massively cutting back the business to the bone etc. You guys are always good for a laugh, keep up the BS :)
Where did Holden get money to buy Vodafone? GM is bankrupt and Holden has no money.
Like Ford, they will only sponsor 2 teams next year, leaving the others with no money. There is no point in Ford teams changing to Holden because they will get no money anyway. V8 Supercars has no effect whatsoever on the sales of Holden or Ford cars as they are so removed from the production cars. But for a few panels and the engine they are identical underneath. Walkinshaw and HRT will be pissed at this because they think they are the greatest team. I tell you what though, i bet 888 dont win as much with Commodes as they did with the Fords, wont they have egg on their faces then!!
I wonder if any Holden teams change to Fords so they can win some races. They wil be pissed at this decision thats for sure.
Ingal was awesome with stone bros falcon . Look at him now back in junk and struggling. You only win races in Falcons.
this new holden 888 team will not be as good as the old 888 team.
Face it people Holden and Ford make no profit with Commodores and Falcon in this country without tax payers money. With recommendations to turn off the funding in 2015, tell me how can they survive. Look Holden proved idiots will buy their imported crap because it has a Holden badge, so why can`t it happen with the Commodore.
goodbye 888… your dead to me… but shame on ford for losing them… at least DJR has come out and said there remaining loyal!!
Ford did the right thing with 888 because they wanted heaps of money but wouldnt change the colors of the car. As Holden do, they whinged their arses off because they werent winning enough races. HRT will be insensed at having 888 in competition with them and the other Holden teams will lose all their Holden funding. GM are bankrupt so why are Holden wasting money on stupid car racing that doesnt help their business anyway? I will laugh when 888 dont win a race next year……..
God where do some of these comments come from on here ?, The back cave ?.
Lowndes was never looked at well when driving a holden by the ford camp, then they pinched him. And in the years they come to love him. I know almost all ford people have said when he was with holden they didn’t like him more because they didn’t pay attention to him. Now what will be more interesting is seeing how ford fans take him now.
holden fans excepted his bathurst wins in the name of peter brock. If it was going to be a ford driver why not his student.
But some things you read in here is just total rubbish. Holden broke ?. Funny.
It would be interesting to see the Kelly brothers drive black Fords soon. But that’s the biggest V8 blunder ever. The best team switches to an inferior car. Tsk tsk, better call it Holden Supercars then Ford can come up with their own series drifting away from dinosaur pushrods and develop the Coyote for motorsport.
As much as this upsets me as a Ford fan, it does highlight one thing very clearly. Neither Ford OR Holden are providing the winning component in a V8 Supercars team. Triple 8 Racing and its two amazing drivers win races, not the fact that they’ve been driving a Falcon. It kills me to say it but they’ll be just as competitive in a Commodore. Especially considering they’ll now be receiving backing from a manufacturer.
Teams and drivers want to win races, and they will do whatever is necessary to make that happen. We see this kind of move all the time in other sports, as well as other brands of motorsport. We shouldn’t be surprised to see more of it in the coming years.
UncleCracker……Holden have no money and are broke. Where have you been? Holden are fully owned by the U.S. Government and are running on American taxpayers money. Holden should be spending money on making descent cars instead of the crap they have now. In a few years Commodore will be gone and they will be a Daewoo importer. Then tell people who will lose their jobs”yeah, but we won a few car races”!They wont sell any more Commodes because of this so whats the point?
Anyway, good on Ford, I would rather them keep sponsoring the Geelong Cats than a racing team owned by a bunch of whinging poms…….GO CATS!!
LSD I love reading your rantings. Its the best laugh I get all day. Holden is owned by the US government and is surviving on US taxpayers money. Oh god that is just so funny. Please keep up the good work. Please post more humor like that! God thats so funny!
If ford stop making the falcon, v8 supercars will probaly become a nascar style fibreglass body of a torus over a tube chaises , people will probally keep watching it.
Mad Max…….Holden are owned by GM which is now owned by Barak Obama, where have you been? Let me repeat for you………..HOLDEN IS OWNED BY GM WHICH IS OWNED BY THE U.S GOVERNMENT. They went bankrupt and have been running on taxpayers money …….do you understand?
Fact: The FG Falcon is slippery than the VE Commodore. Fact: The chassie of the FG Falcon is more stable that the VE Commodore. So why would 888 move to Holden, MONEY.
Sour grapes? no it’s called business. If Toyota were to race next year and offered more money than Holden to 888 well I’m sure they would go to Toyota. Fans don’t pay the bills. On the other hand if V8SC were to offer membership to teams as the AFL does with the football then there might be a different direct in funding.
Obviously people do not read the news, Holden is owned by GM who went bankrupt, the CEO took a $1 a year salary and it still didn’t help, so the goverment stepped in, the only US car maker to refuse the government bail out was…… you guessed it FORD, not that that means anything to Ford Australia, because it is a seperate entity, meaning Ford Australia is owned by Ford Australia, hence making it the ONLY Australian car maker.
Now onto the other points, Team Vodafone are a bunch of whinging Poms, and as I said in an earlier post, it’s one thing to have good drivers and a good team, but without a good car, all that doesn’t mean a thing, as someone lese said, I will be laughing next year when the Vodafone cars are sniffing around the ass end of the field.
Whincup, Lowndes and Dane should hang their heads in shame, they were part of a good thing, a very good thing, and they’ve tossed it away all for a bit of extra coin, I dunno about other people but I’d rather be an untouchable winner and champion than to bo rich…. why? Because once you become a winner, you get rich anyway, so u get the best of both worlds.
And to all those Holden fans, laugh it up before the next season starts, coz once it does start, you’ll all be eating ur hats and cursing at your preferred brand for wasting money on something that is destined to fail.
Holdens philosophy when it comes to engines – Screw technology, we’ll just give it more cubes.
Holdens philosohpy when it comes to the public – Screw the morons we’ll tell them that we’re Australian, even though we’re not, the idiots will believe it
Holdens philosophy when it comes to racing – If you can’t beat them, first have a cry about they way the operate, then if that doesn’t work…. buy them.
Holdens philosophy when it comes to new cars – We’ll give it the same name as a car which failed to sell two years ago(Cruze), maybe the public has forgotten.
Holden philosophy to GM going bust – Well tell the public that it won’t affect us at all, even though we can no longer export the Bomb-a-dore, and we can no longer import the Astra… (umm, hello, how could that NOT affect your company???)
Not real bright on the ‘red’ side of the fence are they?
MY GOD the anti-spam word was Holden! As if this news wasn’t bad enough already!!!
Anyways V*SC licenses should be allocated 50% Ford, 50% Olden. Really it is V8SC who should also be enticing new entrants into the sport.
Anyways Ford will have some younger drivers who will hopefully step up (Courtney, Cheeseburger, W/Bottom) who will hopfully have there teams step up and produce some wins.
Lol…… cheeseburger???? WTF? lol
LSD- you obviously are a bit slow. Holden is a totaly seperate entity to GM USA. They were never effected by the bunkruptcy proceedings. If you read the original documents presented to the court proceedings, GM Holden was sperated from GM some couple of years ago and is its own company. This was confirmed by Holden some weeks ago when the rumors of a Chinese takeover. Part of the US Governments bailout was a stipulation that NO US governments money (tax payers money) was to be used in any GM owned, part owned or affiliated (read Holden) companies overseas. That was also a stipulation made by our Government to the money given to Holden (as well as Ford and Toyota)meaning the money could not be siphoned off to the overseas divisions. Holden ARE NOT receiving any US tax payers money!
Michael I love your passion for Ford but let me correct you. Ford Australia are wholely owned by Ford US, just like Holden is wholely owned by GM. They’re both as Australian as each other, with Holden having the advantage of a unique name so they can claim they are the only Australian company.
Anyway Ford had to cut back funding somewhere so had to cut funding for some teams. They were never not going to back FPR considering Prodrive own a fair slice of FPR. Now I believe Ford were going to support 888 until the incident last year where Lowndes was meant to drive the FG show car but then vodafone cut in and said lowndes wouldnt be driving it because he was contracted to wear a vodafone race suit. A little dispute came about so James Courtney drove the car. 2 weeks later Ford annouces they are withdrawing support for Team Vodafone. Obviously something has happened in the background where Vodafone and Ford couldn’t see eye to eye. I can definately say that Ford didn’t withdrawl support because the cars were the wrong colour. All they needed was a splash of blue like last year.
Ok back to the topic. I don’t think you’ll see 888 winning races right away. Yes the cars are similar but they still have different handling characteristics. 888 will be going to all tracks with virtually “no data”. Granted its a similar situation this year going from BF to FG but the aero package is the virtually the same. Whereas the VE has a vastly different aero balance because it is much wider. 888 will be up the front but dont expect the domination you see atm for at least 12 months. They will win races though they are too good not too.
Oh 888 will still be building customer cars, holden & Ford. Thats their major cash flow right now so they won’t stop building customer cars. Not the 1st time that has happened either, in 1995 Larry Perkins built Tony Longhurst an EF Falcon while Larry continued building his commodores.
Mad Max…..a total separate identity? are you stupid? Its called GM Holden…….not Holden and they are directly affected by the bankruptcy!! They may not be directly recieving U.S. money but they are reliant on U.S. money to keep GM going so it doesnt matter what you think they are only still here because of U.S. bailout money. Holden are totally reliant on GM. And who knows how long GM can carry a company like Holden who keep losing money? GM have no money for new models and thet will affect Holden because thats where their money and most of the Commodore comes from. You have no idea have you?
As for not being affected……….you obviously havent heard of Pontiac. lol
Glen, sorry but I disagree, Ford Australia is exactly that, Ford Australia, they receive no finding, no parts, no nothing, even the Boss V8 has to be bought, shipped here then assembled here, unlike GMH and their V8’s they are shipped over complete, ready to be dropped into their cars.
If you wanna get down to the nitty gritty, Ford is more australian than Holden, and the Falcon is the only Australian car, it’s designed here, built here, everything, unlike the Commodore, which for a large majority of its life, was a rip off of the Opel Omega
Once again Michael i like your passion but again your wrong. Ford Australia is its own seperate division yes, yet is still wholly American owned. Holden is exactly the same Holden is just another name for GM Australia. They get the vast majority of their funding from the US.
I agree with you that Ford is more australian with engineering and manufacturing with their products but the thing is in reality the only Australian part about Ford & Holden is the Falcon and Commodore. Yes the Commodores were originally cut and shut euro opel models but (and I haven’t found any evidence to contradict this) the VE commodore is on an Aussie developed platform, designed with help from the Americans.
Glen you are also forgetting the territory…. you know that class leading vehicl that even car advice themselves say is a benchmark in its catergory despite its age. Australians designing for australian conditions i guess, rather than ringing up GM Daewoo for a new range of rebadges.
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