HSV and Holden continue on

Holden and Holden Special Vehicles have pledged to continue developing new models together despite the end of the motorsport relationship between HSV’s sibling, Walkinshaw Racing, and the car brand.

Holden chairman and managing director Mark Bernhard today confirmed during a brief media call Walkinshaw Racing’s deal to race two Commodores in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship would not be renewed beyond the end of this year.

Bernhard also announced a new three-year deal with Triple Eight Race Engineering (T8) which has been handed the Holden Racing Team (HRT) brand. T8 will now have the sole responsibility to develop the Supercars version of the imported Opel Insgnia-based Commodore for the 2018 season.

HSV and Walkinshaw Racing are both divisions of the Walkinshaw Group, which is owned by the Walkinshaw family. Ryan Walkinshaw, the son of the late Tom Walkinshaw who founded HSV in 1987, is chairman of the business.

Asked about the ongoing relationship with HSV during today’s teleconference, Bernhard said there was “nothing specific to talk about today.

“We continue to work very closely with HSV and on [the] vehicles that we will have with HSV in the future."

In a statement issued this afternoon, Ryan Walkinshaw said: “After fielding Holden’s official factory team for 26 years we are naturally disappointed but respect Holden’s decision. We are rightly proud to have enjoyed a wonderful relationship with Holden over the years, and have enjoyed many successes together. While our official motorsport partnership may have ended, our relationship with Holden remains strong and we continue to work closely on future road vehicle initiatives in line with our HSV business.”

Holden and Walkinshaw have been in negotiation for some time over the shape of their long-term relationship beyond the end of local Commodore production in 2017. HSV’s model line-up is based on V8 versions of the Commodore (and its long-wheelbase sibling).

While a new agreement is not signed, it is understood to be close. This points to HSV developing a flagship a flagship road-going performance version of the next Commodore – expected to be V6 turbo and all-wheel drive. As noted above T8 will develop the race version that promotes it.

Based in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton, Walkinshaw Group is also involved in ‘below the line’ engineering and design work for other car manufacturers and has also diversified in recent years into the Australian distribution of Tata vehicles and converting American RAM trucks to right-hand drive.

It is also understood to be pushing for a wider, deeper involvement in General Motors performance model development globally.

Walkinshaw Racing has also recently expanded from racing only Supercars to campaigning a customer-owned Porsche 911 in the Australian GT3 sports car championship. It reportedly has plans to expand to racing as many as four 911s

The decision to race the new generation Commodore has been confirmed today after months of internal debate about Holden’s motorsport structure beyond local manufacturing. The company’s former marketing director Geraldine Davys, had strongly questioned Holden’s ongoing investment in Supercars, as well as other sponsorship activities such as the National Rugby League and the Collingwood AFL club. But after 15 months with Holden, Davys has departed, returning to her previous employer, price comparison service iSelect.

motoring.com.au sources insisted Davys departure from the process did not influence Holden’s final decision on motorsport.

“There is a debate in all of our sponsorship agreements and that’s part of the role of the marketing team; to evaluate all sponsorships, whether they be motorsport, Collingwood football club or the National Rugby League,” said Bernhard.

“We see motorsport as a great opportunity for us to both honour the heritage that we have and the fans in the business, but also around the performance and technology of the next generation Commodore.

“We think this is a great way to demonstrate that to fans and customers,” he said.