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NEWS
Falcon's death notice casts doubt over Ford race program
The news that Ford will stop making cars in Australia in 2016 raises a big question over the Blue Oval's future in V8 Supercar racingComment
It had been a week to reflect on and contemplate three of the world’s biggest motor races this weekend – the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 – and that Australia is so regularly represented in each of them now – and already had great success on the streets of Monte Carlo.
Then came the news that Ford will stop making cars in Australia in 2016, and the question that raises is the Blue Oval’s future in V8 Supercar racing.
Through this author’s eyes it is hard to see the factory giving any support beyond this year to the Falcon it is going to kill off.
Ford Performance Racing owners Rod Nash and Rusty French, who bought out David Richards’ Prodrive last summer but hold a contract with the factory expiring at the end of this year, appear to hold a forlorn hope that Ford may still find reason to be represented on the country’s racetracks.
Nash reckoned yesterday’s news “by no means signals an end to Ford in Australia, nor to the close relationship we have with the company”.
“We are proud to fly the Ford flag and look forward to doing so for years to come,” he said.
But how can Ford justify backing a race program after it lost $141 million in Australia last year, $600 million over the past five years, and is selling about 13 per cent the number of Falcons it did in the mid-1990s – when the V8 formula had been introduced but before it was branded V8 Supercars – while the Australian car market has grown 25 per cent in that time.
When sales have plummeted so steeply over the past 18 years, while Ford has been involved in what until this year was a straight fight with Holden’s Commodore, why would they improve in the coming years as the Falcon is phased out of production? Surely it is more likely those sales will shrink further, perhaps even faster.
Ford’s decision to stop building cars in Australian in 2016 was no surprise to anyone with the remotest attention on the situation, although the timing of the announcement was something of a shock.
Ford Australia chief Bob Graziano did not make any friends with the announcement and was vague on the sporting aspect, admittedly a lesser priority in the big scheme of things.
“No decision has been made on the motorsport program yet and we will work with our motorsport teams and work through that over the next three years,” Graziano said.
There are only six Falcons in the 28 “Car of the Future” field this year. All were built by FPR, which campaigns four of them, with the other two entered by the continually financially-embattled Dick Johnson Racing.
Fifteen Australian touring car/V8 Supercar championships and 12 Bathurst 1000s have been won by Falcons, but none of them FPR Falcons.
DJR miraculously produced a national title in 2010, and remains an iconic name in the sport, but it is perennially on “life support” these days.
Long-time Ford team Stone Brothers Racing this year has been recast as Erebus Motorsport and is fielding three AMG Mercedes-Benz E63s, while Nissan has come in with four Altimas – still yet to be released as a road car in Oz.
The other 15 cars on the track bear the shape of the VF Holden Commodore, officially launched yesterday – almost precisely as the Ford news broke. There have been fears for some time that Holden may be forced to make a similar decision to Ford on car manufacturing in Australia a couple of years behind it, but just for now it does not seem that dire.
If it were, and it led to the General withdrawing from Australian track competition, it would be grim news for V8 Supercars, even if – as seems increasingly likely – it entices Chrysler in.
While one wonders what basis there could be for Ford staying in racing beyond this year as the Falcon dies, there may be some prospect – after a clean break – that it could re-enter with whichever global model is its successor in the Australian car market.
But that inevitably will depend on the dynamics at the time – and whether Nissan and perhaps Chrysler have resurrected any of the old “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday”. We deliberately did not include AMG Mercedes there, as the Erebus E63s are very much a privateer effort, in defiance even of Mercedes-Benz Australia’s wishes.
Ford Australia, or some there, at least may still have some heart for racing. The problem is that it won’t have any dollars for it.
Picture courtesy of V8 Supercars.
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Written byGeoffrey Harris
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