Holden drops Walkinshaw: HRT goes to Triple8

The Red Bull Holden Racing Team… That’s the name of the sole factory-backed Holden team in Supercars racing from 2017 following today’s announcement the Aussie GM brand will no longer financially back Walkinshaw Racing and has shifted its historic HRT moniker to Triple Eight Race Engineering.

Holden, which owns the Holden Racing Team name, has also confirmed a three-year contract extension with Triple Eight, which means the operation that has dominated Supercars racing for a decade will fly the flag in the locally-designed and built Commodore’s final year of racing as a production model.

Triple Eight (T8) will then be responsible for developing a Supercar version of the all-new imported Commodore that is expected to be powered by a twin-turbo V6 engine. That car is tipped to debut at the start of the 2018 season driven by six-time champion Jamie Whincup, Red Bull team-mate Shane van Gisbergen and Craig Lowndes (who drives for the satellite TeamVortex).

“Triple Eight will develop, build, race and I am sure win with the next generation Commodore Supercar from 2018,” said Holden chairman and managing director Mark Bernhard during the official announcement this morning.

“It’s a great move for Holden, our fans and our customers and our commitment to motorsport and especially our long term future in this country,” Bernhard stated.

The new Commodore will also be available for privateer teams to purchase and race.

The new deal with T8 extends Holden’s continuous backing of teams in Australia’s premier sedan category to 60 years.

The end of the deal with Walkinshaw Racing and the Walkinshaw family, which can trace its factory racing connections with Holden back nearly 30 years, was not unexpected. Despite a series of rebuilds and restructures under owner Ryan Walkinshaw (son of team founder, the late Tom Walkinshaw), HRT has been unable to achieve consistent competitiveness. It last won the all-important Bathurst 1000 in 2011 and the drivers’ championship in 2002.

“I’d like to thank the Walkinshaw team and pay respects for the partnership we enjoyed for many years. They are a great team and we wish them all the best in the future,” said Bernhard.

“We will also continue to help Walkinshaw wherever we can. We support every Holden team in pitlane through various avenues such as marketing support, technical support, sponsorship acquisition, even down to designing race liveries with certain teams.

“We will continue to do that with Walkinshaw,” the Holden boss said.

Ryan Walkinshaw has previously stated the team will continue on in 2017, although what form it takes and who will drive its car remains an unknown. Current drivers James Courtney and Garth Tander are out of contract at the end of this season. Walkinshaw has also said selling a minority share of the team to investors is under consideration.

Despite the racing changes, Holden and Walkinshaw Group retain strong ties through the Holden Special Vehicles road car business. That deal is expected to continue on beyond the end of the racing partnership. The Walkinshaw organisation has been pushing hard for some time to expand the company’s relationship with Holden’s parent General Motors  post local manufacturing.

The deal is a sweet victory for T8 majority owner Roland Dane, who shifted from Ford to Holden in 2010 after the blue oval elected to commit its factory backing to Ford Performance Racing (now Prodrive racing Australia). Ford pulled out of Supercars racing at the end of the 2015 season.

As rival factory Holden team owners, Dane and Walkinshaw have had plenty of run-ins over the years and there is no love lost.

With Volvo pulling out at the end of 2016 and Nissan yet to confirm whether it will go on, T8 could yet be the only team on the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship grid classified as a ‘factory’ team in 2017.