MOTORSPORT: Volvo pull-out has no impact

Holden and Nissan insist Volvo’s shock withdrawal from Supercar (or V8 Supercar, as we knew it until last week) racing at the end of 2016 will have no impact on their futures in the category.

Volvo dropped the bombshell late Wednesday afternoon Australian time, when its wholly-owned Polestar performance and motorsport division announced the end of its involvement with Garry Rogers Motorsport and the championship.

While there was some initial confusion in some quarters (including GRM) about the significance of the decision, it soon became clear that this was a complete and utter severing of ties, with the S60 V8 racers being recalled to Sweden at the end of the year, ending any chance of them racing on here in privateer form.

Volvo is officially citing the incompatibility between its three- and four-cylinder and electrified future as a production car manufacturers and the V8 engines that powers its Australian race car, but it’s also apparent there was some significant behind the scenes manoeuvring in Sweden to ensure the deal was not extended beyond its initial three-year term.

Of the two remaining manufacturers associated with the Supercars championship, Nissan is the one with the most similarities to Volvo.

It joined the championship in the new Gen2 era in 2013 – one year before Volvo – and has backed one team, Nissan Motorsport, which is owned by the Kelly family. But while Volvo has had significant success, the four factory Altimas have struggled, claiming only one win (in 2013 at Winton) in that time.

Like Volvo Car Australia’s boss Kevin McCann, Nissan Australia MD Richard Emery has to gain the green light from his global headquarters to continue on in local motorsport and Supercars.

“From my perspective it [Volvo’s withdrawal] doesn’t make any difference, but having said that the word will filter through into the Nissan motorsport environment in Japan and they will probably ask me some more questions now about why I think Volvo made their [sic] decision and what’s the basis of their decision,” Emery told motoring.com.au.

Emery’s timetable of negotiations with Nissan and its motorsport division, Nismo, has consistently blown out and with new management recently taking the reigns at Nismo, a decision is not now expected before June.

“That is still the case,” he confirmed.

“I can say I had a conversation with them last week again, just further information flows between us and the new people. It wasn’t specifically to advance a decision, more let’s have a catch-up and get some more background.

“I am in Japan in a couple of weeks at the end of May and I will probably have the chance to go face-to-face with some of these guys at that point in time.”

Emery acknowledged that navigating the channels of upper management in a large company such as Nissan made the gaining of a green light for the Australian program a delicate process. He did not dispute the proposition that the way the Volvo program fell over was indicative of the complexities and bureaucracies of a multi-national corporation.

“There are so many stakeholders [within a car company],” Emery said.

“It’s a bit simplistic to view it just as a marketing decision or a motorsport decision. There are other factors at play that need to be considered.”

One factor Emery must deal with is that racing the Altima in Australia doesn’t really fit with Nissan’s global emphasis on racing the GT-R. But he has indicated the intention would be to continue with the Altima and its locally-developed V8 engine.

There is no doubt that Nissan is being wooed by much of the Supercar pitlane and Emery has made it clear that an initial decision to reinvest in Supercars is separate to deciding with which teams the money will be spent.

It is likely that the Kellys will continue to receive funding but perhaps not for four cars. It also likely that at least one other outfit will be added to the roster. At or near the top of that list must be DJR Team Penske, the team owned by US motor racing mogul Roger Penske that is currently unaligned with a manufacturer.

Holden is in a different position to Nissan. It has been officially involved in Australian touring car racing since 1969, with the company recently celebrating its 500th race win.

It has already committed to continue on in the championship but has yet to define what form that support will take.

It currently backs two factory teams; Triple Eight Race Engineering which races as Red Bull Racing Australia and has just added a third Caltex-backed car for category icon Craig Lowndes.

The other factory outfit is the Holden Racing Team, which is operated by Walkinshaw Racing, an arm of the same group that also owns and runs Holden Special Vehicles.

Of the two teams, T8 has been far more successful in recent years, leading to much speculation that a reduction in Holden spending might mean the end of backing for the Walkinshaw operation. Holden owns the HRT name and could transfer it elsewhere.

Complicating all this is the end of local Commodore production by the end of 2017 and its replacement by an imported model based on the Opel Insignia. The racing version will likely be powered by a twin-turbo V6 engine allowed under the new Gen2 rules that kick off in 2017.

“We were a bit surprised like most people [by Volvo’s withdrawal], but our involvement in the sport is more about the sport itself as opposed to all the different manufacturers that may or may not be in there,” said Holden director of communications, Sean Poppitt.

Unlike Volvo, Holden will not have a decision about its motorsport plans imposed on it from above. In fact, General Motors HQ in North America is understood to be very much in support of an ongoing Supercar program.

“Our destiny is certainly completely in our own hands,” said Poppitt.

“But I couldn’t give you a line in the sand timeframe [on a decision]. It could be as soon as two months or it might stretch out to four months.

“It’s a massive part of Holden’s heritage so any decision we make -- whether it be scaling it back or what we do with it -- we are approaching with the kind of gravitas it deserves. It is something we are spending a lot of time on,” Poppitt stated.

“We will continue to be involved in Supercars and we will continue to have a presence in it. That is for sure. But what that looks like and the level of it and that sort of thing is what we are working though,” he said.