Ford Australia pondering SuperUtes

Ford Australia is eyeing potential factory support in the bourgeoning SuperUtes category to go with its recently announced Supercars program.

As development of the Mustang Supercar continues ahead of its inaugural 2019 championship bid, Ford executives said this week there were several motorsport opportunities on the table to support the rollout of more performance models locally including the upcoming Ranger Raptor and Fiesta ST.

Speaking with motoring.com.au, Ford Australia president Graeme Whickman said the Raptor in particular made a strong case for added investment in racing.

“The Raptor is a Ford Performance vehicle so it should earn its right to be on the track regardless. And nothing on the track will come close to it, in terms of what it is,” Whickman said.

“Our first and biggest priority is to get through the work we need to do on the Mustang. That’s a big undertaking, between Ford Performance, the teams and ourselves. That’s where our focus and priority is. Who know where it goes in the future.”

The general manager of Ford’s marketing division, Danni Winter, said Ford had been monitoring the success of SuperUtes, which replaced the long-running V8 Utes category as a support card for Supercars rounds earlier this year.

Despite mixed public reaction and a grid of 10 competitors – less than half the field of the outgoing V8 Utes -- Winter sees merit in the new dual-cab diesel category.

“It’s going to be interesting to see what happens with the SuperUtes Series. We’ve seen that entrants have started to grow and we’ve seen our market diversify to more and more pick-ups,” she said.

“We don’t have anything to announce today but I think SuperUtes is a really interesting series and category. We’ve got one Ranger entrant in that series now and I think we’re going to see that series evolve.

“It will be up to the teams and which vehicles they choose to race in that series, and I think we’ll keep looking at that series for future opportunities.”

It is understood Holden is the only car-maker to lend support to SuperUtes thus far in a factory capacity, with other teams constructed around dealership support and other means.

Ford has already dipped a toe in the water with the Ranger Raptor, signing it up as the official recovery vehicle of the Supercars calendar.

Looking ahead, production car racing and even rallying could be on the table as Ford expands its performance car fleet.

“There’s nothing to announce yet, but with the launch of the Ford Performance brand, I think that really opens us up to newer avenues as we bring in a suite of new models,” Winter said.

“Obviously the launch of Ranger Raptor will be a fantastic addition to our line-up, and really expand the opportunity to do some of those other marketing opportunities that we’d like to be involved in.

“We have nothing to announce today but we will continue to consider and explore just as we have done with Supercars. That was 18 months of development, maybe longer… a lot of factors play into that including where we’re at in other parts of the world.

“I think we’ll continue to see that area evolve, quite frankly, as the landscape continues to change.”

Whickman described the Mustang development program as “on track”, giving away no detail about when the race car will officially be shown.

“We haven’t updated anyone and that’s deliberate. We want to work away quietly at it and we don’t want distractions. Now’s the time to be involved in the detail and not being worried about periphery,” he said.

Whickman made one thing clear: Ford expects the Mustang to be competitive. And there’s no suggestion it won’t be, given the ongoing success of both the Penske and Tickford teams that will spearhead the Mustang attack next year.

“We don’t race for the fun of it. That’s obviously an important outcome, but we want to be competitive and we want to demonstrate the Ford Performance innovations and technologies that we have, that you will often see on the road.”