It is the start of the end of an era. V8 Supercars’ last season as exclusively Holden versus Ford kicks off at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide on Friday – and Holden has already finalised its battle plans for what lies ahead.
Victory for Holden in the showpiece season-opener would cap off a huge week in which the manufacturer has pledged its long-term financial support to its two marquee teams – Holden Racing Team (HRT) and Team Vodafone.
HRT’s new off-track leadership faces its first test in returning the team to championship success, and it already has drivers Garth Tander and James Courtney under long-term deals.
And Team Vodafone has – as expected – re-signed the sport’s best-known face Craig Lowndes on a new deal which will take the 37-year-old three-time champion into his 40s.
With new manufacturers headed by Nissan to join the series from next year, Holden’s is well placed off the track.
Now attention turns to a Clipsal 500 restored to its place as the season-opening event, and HRT has declared it wants on-track bragging rights back from Team Vodafone and V8 champion Jamie Whincup.
“Everything the team said was going to happen, they’ve delivered on, and we’ve put ourselves in a strong position to start the year on a better foot than how we started last year,” Tander said of HRT.
“We feel we’ve developed the car over the break but we won’t know until we turn a wheel on Friday.”
New HRT managing director Steve Hallam – an ex-Formula One and NASCAR engineer – and team manager Mike Henry come with vast experience at the highest levels of world motorsport.
Tander had a mixed 2011, winning Bathurst with a drive for the ages, but finishing fifth in the championship.
He says nothing less than finishing with the title will do for the new HRT.
“It was a year where we had some fantastic success and some really bad weekends where we didn’t perform to expectations,” he said.
“We needed to be more consistent.
“For us, a successful year is winning the championship. There are very high expectations put on HRT and, when we haven’t lived up to those expectations, we feel we’ve underperformed.”
The Clipsal 500 has been an excellent guide to the championship.
Six of the past 13 V8 Supercar series winners have won in Adelaide the same year.
Whincup’s three titles have all come in years he won the Clipsal 500.
More than 270,000 people are expected over the four-day event, which started on Thursday with a full day of support-category races.
Practice and qualifying are scheduled for Friday, with 250km races on Saturday and Sunday.
Dave
Guest
Look, I take the point about a two manufacturer race, but Holden versus Ford is what most Australian racing fans want to see. This is why the Group A experiments finished so quickily, nobody wanted to watch Sieras they couldn't even buy in this country and which wouldn't, even if they could have bought them, even reasonably drive them from Melbourne to Bathurst with out a back up crew, winning the great race. And so the viewers turned off. The thing about the COTF platform is that it is utterly stupid, it is not about manufacturer against manufacturer, even manufacturers that dont produce a V8 will be able to 'borrow' a generic engine. This is gay, gayer than gay, and that is comming from a poofta. Genuinely - so don't bar this entry please to the moderator just becuase it seems offensive to a mionority, I can call myself a spade if I want. And make a joke out of it. Problem is that by the time Nissan and Chrysler have finished chopping up the validity of chasis building by Holden and Ford in this country, we are gonna be needing shovels to dig the grave of our auto industry. CAMS of course will profit massively. Boycott COTF.
Scotty
Guest
Well I have read about 2013 and the COTF and well.......it looks like I will have to be happy with my wonderful 70s and 80s memories. The new sillhouette class seems to be just more of the same with a dumbing down to try and get close racing means there is little to cheer for for those who us who go deeper than atavistic Ford vs Holden urges. And I'm a Ford guy, and when I was last back home I was mighty impressed by the V8 Falcons I saw driving around the Central Coast...but they bear no relation to the race cars. Give me back the Auntie ABC 4+ 2 from Amaroo!!! Kingswood racing, Formula V, classics, thats where the variety is. all the best Scotty
DANIEL
Guest
Many V8 fans are looking foreward to next year and i ma really hoping that the series will wind up a whole heap more competive than recently. The real trigger for it was holden and ford being forced to cut off all but 2 teams each I am really glad that nissan decided to attach to an exisiting team rather than canabilizing one
Ben Carter
Roar Guru
Interesting little story from US magazine "Economist" on the fortunes of the US NASCAR series - and perhaps a reminder as to why persisting with too much of a clone-style car type prolongs the high-cost issues of running a team, whereas variety encourages fans and new investment into the series. http://www.economist.com/node/21548254
Ben Carter
Roar Guru
Hi Guy, Scotty - I agree. I have deliberately boycotted the touring car championship since the late 1990s when TEN and the V8 Supercar organisers made it a two-make series, end on end, with Bathurst's 1000 just another round of the year instead of a prestige, stand-alone event. Bringing back more models into the series (Nissan next year and hopefully Audie, Chrysler, etc, in the future) has made me want to watch again in 2013. Bring it on!
Scotty
Guest
Maybe I have the wrong end of the pineapple, but despite being born to a Blue Oval family and cheering my Fords all the way through the 70s and 80s as soon as the V8 Supercar thing happened I lost interest almost immeadiately.What was so great about Bathurst was all the seperate classes, and yeah I always cheered for the Fords and especially John Goss, Dick Johnson, Moffatt etc etc but also cheering for the plucky Alfa or seeing Kev Bartlett monster the Camaro around the mountain was just as thrilling. The turbo Bluebirds, the RX7s, the Jag V12s and everything else is what made racing great! Didn't John Bowe once drive a Volvo Station wagon??!!! I will look forward to the new era with interest, though I know little about it, having lived in the UK these last 11 years...