Team Vodafone set for Holden switch

Speculation is rife Holden is set to reveal that top V8 Supercar outfit Triple Eight Race Engineering/Team Vodafone will field Commodores in the country's premier racing series from next year. An announcement is thought to be imminent -- perhaps as early as tomorrow (Wednesday).

Team Vodafone has been the dominant force in V8 racing this year Down Under. Though the team campaigns Falcons it does not receive funding from Ford. Cash support from the Blue Oval was withdrawn in a sponsorship purge last year.

Although the key players are remaining tight-lipped about the defection, the dogs are barking loudly in the motorsport press. Auto Action magazine will lead with the story in its edition 1351 on sale tomorrow.

It is believed that the (Tom) Walkinshaw Performance-run Holden Racing Team will remain the General's factory flagbearer, but that Roland Dane's Team Vodafone may be the only other team with financial support from Holden.

If indeed Dane is switching from running Fords to Holdens, it almost certainly means that Toyota -- the most logical, yet always unlikely, potential third entrant in the sport -- won't be going V8 Supercar racing for at least the next three years, if ever.

It also will be a big blow to Ford and, in the eyes of the fans of Team Vodafone's star drivers Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup, a payback for withdrawal of financial support from Blue Oval headquarters.

The switch will also mean only a third of the V8 Supercar field will be Fords. And that fan favorite Lowndes and today's top gun Whincup -- both under contract to Triple Eight for another three years (along with sponsor Vodafone) -- will be back where they began... On the red side of the touring car fence.

With Ford providing money to only two teams this year (Ford Performance Racing and Stone Brothers Racing), Holden is believed to be ready to follow it's opposition's lead on the spending front. Indications are that, with HRT as its flagship and Triple Eight/Team Vodafone in its camp (the latter building cars for Whincup and Lowndes as well as customers), the General too will have a stop-at-two (teams) policy.

Other teams that have enjoyed Holden's financial backing may find themselves relegated to receiving little more than bodyshells.

Holden has traditionally been the more benevolent of the two participating V8 Supercar manufacturers, sprinkling its sponsorship and assistance a long way down the grid. However, the economic meltdown and depressed motor industry – especially for its American parent, General Motors -- have put a lid on that generosity.

Auto Action editor-at-large Mark Fogarty has pointed out that Holden's new boss, Alan Batey, who is taking over from Mark Reuss, has been strong supporter of the company's V8 racing program.

And Fogarty has elicited an admission from Holden motorsport manager Simon McNamara that he's had "a number of discussions with Roland".

"We've discussed E85 fuel, the greening of V8 Supercars and the state of the category, but what else we many have talked about is not for public consumption," McNamara told Auto Action.

But perhaps by tomorrow it will be for the consumption of Holden dealers -- and by Thursday, ahead of this weekend's V8 Supercar Championship round at Melbourne's Sandown circuit, the public.

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