Ford versus GM battlefront hits the Aussie outback

The fierce rivalry between Ford and General Motors – cultivated over decades of Australian motorsport and marketplace competition – will hit the Simpson Desert this weekend during the 2024 Tatts Finke Desert Race.

The next battle in the classic Red versus Blue war will be written as the two car-makers – with Chevrolet continuing the fight against Ford in the wake of Holden’s closure – face off in the same class of the most arduous, prestigious off-road race in Australia.

They’ll swap the pinnacle of Supercars – the 6.213km strip of bitumen at Bathurst that’s built icons, burnt reputations and seen the pendulum swing from hero to heartbreak – for 226km of whoops, drops, sump-bashing rocks amid the endless nostril-blocking dust of Finke, the crown jewel of Australian off-road racing.

After a prologue event this Saturday (June 8), the race itself will comprise two competitive legs: the 226km run from Alice Springs to Apultula (Finke) on Sunday, before teams camp overnight and cover Leg 2 – the return journey – on Monday.

Hundreds of competitors will start the treacherous race and a large number won’t make it back.

Ford returns for the second year running with the same actual Ranger Raptor – albeit significantly checked over – it used to win the Production 4WD Class at its first attempt in 2023.

It also set a record on the second leg of the event and fell an agonising three minutes short of a total course record, which was clearly within reach had the entry – driven by Hall of Famer Brad Lovell and his 16-year-old son Byam – not suffered a simple loose bolt, costing 12 minutes on the first leg.

Ford could hardly ask for more than last year’s victory, when it set a record time and attracted plenty of positive publicity for the Ranger, so why risk coming back?

“We probably exceeded our expectations,” Ford’s Finke program manager Justin Capicchiano told carsales.

“There are a number of reasons why we want to go back, that [missed course record] being one of them.

“That's absolutely a target for us. We’re there to win and we want to go for the record that we missed out on last year – we were close.”

The line-up of Brad and Byam Lovell is back, but the lessons of last year have been applied to the re-liveried Ranger Raptor for 2024.

“We’ve made a number of changes to the truck this year to help make us faster and make us more reliable and hopefully take us there… [but] this year’s a little bit different. We recognise we’ve got some new competitors in the class.”

That’s a reference to the Chevrolet Racing entry, a 6.2-litre V8-powered Silverado ZR2 with none other than seven-times Bathurst winner and PR dream Craig Lowndes at the wheel.

“When GMSV [General Motors Specialty Vehicles] launched this program it was something that I jumped on, because it’s just a really interesting thing that I wanted to do,” said Lowndes, who will make his Finke race debut this year.

While he hasn’t competed in the race, Lowndes has done the Prologue before – and his sealed-surface accomplishments mean he’s no slouch on the rough stuff, as proven by his victory on debut in the 2010 Australasian Safari before winning Bathurst only days later.

“I've always enjoyed the dirt side of it. I grew up on motocross, so although my history and my career has always been on bitumen, I’ve been fascinated with the dirt side of it and this is a great opportunity.”

Lowndes’ co-driver will be multiple rally champion Dale Moscatt, whose career includes more than 400 starts in events including the Australian Rally Championship, World Rally Championship and the famed Dakar Rally.

While the full-size Chevrolet Silverado pick-up and the smaller Ford Ranger – Australia’s top-selling new vehicle – compete in different sales segments, the pair will be in the same Production 4WD class in this year’s race.

So it will Blue Oval versus Golden Bow-tie – with dust.

“I’m a race driver, so I want to win our class for sure,” said Lowndes, who’ll also make his 31st Bathurst 1000 start this October in a Chevrolet Camaro Supercar.

The Chevrolet project was first revealed in late 2022 as part of its broader racing program, including Supercars and drag racing.

At the time, Chevrolet said the Silverado ZR2 racer was not built with any specific event in mind, but Lowndes already had eyes on doing Finke in it.

“It was a two-minute phone call,” was how Chevrolet Racing general manager Chris Payne described the call to ask the Supercars driver if he was in.

While Ford’s Ranger Raptor was built with the smarts of former Supercars outfit Kelly Racing, the local Silverado team tapped Hall Racing in the US and the vehicle was put together in the free time of passionate GM staff at their Port Melbourne HQ.

Mark Wakeman led the build as program manager for Chevrolet’s Finke effort, having competed in the race himself but failing to finish on all three occasions.

“That’s the nature of the race,” said Wakeman, highlighting the fact that Chevrolet is contesting the event to showcase the Silverado’s off-road ability and reliability.

“There’s no better test of toughness than Finke,” he added. “From some of the stuff we’ve seen over the years, it’s tougher than even a lot of manufacturers put their cars through validation for production – it’s 120th percentile, if you like.

“It’s so rough and so brutal that really no car deserves to be in that type of environment – it’s so punishing – let alone a production car. So any production car that can fit within the rules of the class and do well is pretty impressive.”

That’s something Ford achieved last year in an event so difficult that finishers are awarded a hard-fought ‘Survivor Spike’ if they manage to go the distance and make the full course.

“I’d like to think when they [Chevrolet] saw us finish it was something they thought they could do that was achievable for them,” said Capicchinano.

“I don’t doubt that from the Silverado side, they're looking at it going ‘If we can beat the Raptor that won Finke last year’ that’s good for them. while we look at it and say ‘Well, if we can beat Silverado with Craig Lowndes driving, that’s great for us’.”

However, Wakeman said Ford’s Finke success didn’t influence the Chevrolet team’s approach.

“It was news to us when they turned up on the entry list this year, so no [it’s] not relevant. We’re more focussed on beating the desert and if we happen to beat them, great.”

Wakeman will also be driving his own entry – a Holden Rodeo – in his quest for his first Survival Spike, giving him two chances in this year’s event.

The rulebook for the Production 4WD class limits modifications – unlike the hard-core Trophy Truck driven by Toby Price to outright victory in the car category for the past three years.

The Ranger Raptor’s 3.0-litre petrol V6 and 10-speed auto are untouched – although it is monitored by a MoTeC unit – while the Silverado’s 6.2-litre V8 and 10-speed are also unmodified, including stock air-filters.

Both vehicles have upgraded off-road wheels with 35-inch BFGoodrich tyres and use tweaked suspension tunes.

The Silverado ZR2 employs stock dampers all round, plus standard front springs but softer rear springs.

But of course the ZR2 package includes lifted, high-performance suspension comprising off-road focussed Multimatic DSSV (Dynamic Suspension Spools Valve) shocks.

The Ranger Raptor’s already-formidable stock suspension, featuring adjustable Fox shocks, was what prompted the local Ford team’s successful approach to global Ford Performance motorsport boss Mark Rushbrook to back the plan.

For Finke, damper tuning is the only suspension change, with the Ranger Raptor’s standard spring rates retained.

Each cabin is fitted with obligatory safety gear such a roll-cage, fire extinguishers, racing seats, race harnesses, motorsport instruments and – critical in remote outback Australia – communications including a Starlink hookup.

The rear tray of both utes accommodates a long-range fuel-cell, tools and spare tyre. Ford and Chevrolet crews have each chosen to run only a single spare, given the considerable weight each wheel adds.

Weight is especially critical given the limited modifications allowed by the Production 4WD class. Both vehicles have undergone light-weighting, although the Silverado still uses a standard windscreen (albeit with extra windscreen washers) and door trims, which the rulebook allows to be swapped out.

There’s also public relations and marketing kudos in keeping the vehicle as close to what customers see on the showroom floor.

“We could have pinched a bit of mass here and there, but we just wanted it to be as close as possible to something – on our social media videos, here it is – a truck you can buy,” said Wakeman.

That extends to fully functioning air-conditioning in both vehicle, which is critical to keep the dust of other competitors out of the cabin.

“With a Supercar, you’ve got the ability to run hard and fast from the first lap to the last lap, but with this style of racing we’re going to have to back it off,” said Lowndes.

“You’re going to have to obviously read the terrain or the road, with the whoops and the jumps, [and] make sure that we don’t damage or break the truck on the way down.”

Lowndes will pull a crowd regardless of his performance, while the attention Ford brought to the 2023 Finke with its Ranger – and subsequent promotion – helped promote an event that pumps millions into the Northern Territory economy each year.

But there’s a bigger test beyond the drivers, teams and marketing departments involved in this year’s race.

Chevrolet’s arrival alongside Ford’s return serves to pull even more interest in Finke and Australian off-road racing in general.

Yet neither manufacturer has yet committed to Finke in 2025 – although there’s clearly more than enough passion emanating from both camps to keep going.

What happens in the desert this weekend could help strengthen off-road racing in Australia – beyond Finke – as the spotlight shines on two mainstream brands battling it out.

Of course, almost every mainstream auto brand in Australia has a 4x4 ute eligible to step into the contest in the Production 4WD class.

The fight that fuelled generations of Ford and Holden rivalry may be the fuel to power Finke into a golden era.

“People say that you’re either born blue or you’re born red,” said Capicchiano.

“The Ford fans want us to win, the GM vans want Silverado to win. When you’ve got good competition in the class, it’s good for everyone.”

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