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Ford Motorsports

Ford confirms V8 Supercars exit after 2015 season

Ford V8 Supercar

It’s now official: Ford will pull out of V8 Supercars after the completion of the 2015 season. It’s a story that’s been on the boil for months and was today confirmed by Ford Australia boss Bob Graziano.

“This afternoon, we will announce we will provide support to teams racing Ford Falcons in the 2015 V8 Supercars series but will not renew our sponsorships after the 2015 season,” Graziano said.

“We are electing to invest our funds to continue expanding and refreshing our product lineup while delivering a leading consumer experience.

“You will hear much more about this investment at our ‘Go Further 2020: Experience the Future Today’ event beginning next week.

“There has already been a lot of speculation and confusion about what this means for Ford going forward. Let me be clear about a few key points:

  • Performance is part of our DNA, and will continue to be, as we increase our vehicle offerings and enthusiasts look for a wider range of performance models such as cars like Mustang, Fiesta ST and Focus ST.
  • Ford is proud to launch the FG X Falcon, including building on our performance heritage by racing the new model in V8 Supercars in 2015.
  • This decision is not a short-term plan as we transform our business.

“We are proud of the teams and our history in the series but have made this decision so we can move forward by focusing all of our attention on our great products and consumer experience.”

So, there you have it. A series originally designed to be a two-man show at the expense of all others, will soon lose one of its leading men.

[Source: Speedcafe]

UPDATE: Prodrive Racing Australia (aka Ford Performance Racing) is considering its options beyond 2015, saying it’s possible it will run the FG X Falcon in 2016.

3 replies on “Ford confirms V8 Supercars exit after 2015 season”

So is this in reference to a factory team or, no Falcon’s racing at all??

Must admit, those V8 Ford Focus’ at the 2014 Bathurst 12hr were schmick! Replacement mule?

Ford will stop sponsoring the teams running the Falcon (i.e. the homologated Falcon body shell and the Ford engine package). Those teams can still keep running the Falcon if they wish to, but they won’t have any cash flow from the factory.

With only one year between the end of Ford sponsorship and the start of the next regulations, I expect that a couple of the independent REC owners will switch manufacturers and the remainder of the teams will keep running with the Falcons for the last year of the current rules but without any Ford branding on the cars. It’s happened before – Ford cut off their sponsorship of 888 so the team simply removed all the Ford branding, put Hog’s Breath Cafe badges on the front and rear, and even put the car on the official entry list as the Hog’s Breath Racer for one year while they worked on the following year’s car with Holden.

I expect that Penske will bypass Ford Australia and go straight to the top for a sponsorship deal directly from Ford, and reap the rewards of massive fan loyalty as the “only” Ford team.

@StuG – there are no factory teams in V8SC (not allowed) but Ford provide sponsorship for all four teams currently running the Falcons.

There are two ‘full’ Ford teams (Ford Performance Racing and DJR Team Penske) and two single car owners (former DJR shareholder Charlie Schwerkolt and former independent driver-owner Rod Nash) who run FPR customer cars.

Holden teams can survive on much less from the factory (including some teams like Tekno Autosports getting nothing) because they can run cheaply using customer cars pumped out from 888 or Walkinshaw Performance – something that Dick Johnson (a candidate for Australia’s most stupid businessman) has steadfastly refused to do even back when his cars were competitive and everyone wanted one.

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