888 Racing Moving To Holden

[Pete A]

I'm with you totally. Whilever its going I'll watch it and support the Blue Oval. If it goes, which I cannot control at all, then that's another matter.

[macka'sxr6t]

Hi chaps haven't posted for quite a long time

When I first heard the news I was shocked but not surprised 888 team boss pretty much said he was gonna make a change when Ford wound back it's involvement in V8 Supercars.

After reading your comments I'm over the team change. I do feel sorry for Dicky Johnson though he finely has a competitive car again and another rock takes him out.

What makes people think that 888 will immediately start winning races for Expensive Daewoo next year, HRT have'nt been able to do it and they're the factory backed team that has the biggest budget. There is something inherently wrong with the Expensive Daewoo package there is not one consistent Expensive Daewoo team going around. HRT haven't been able to find the problem and they have been building crappadoors for years

People soon forget that it took 888 several years to be competitive consistently. It may take some time for 888 to stumble across a solution to Holdens inconsistency and make it flow like the FG Falcon. I for one will be happy to watch them sink or swim.

It's now up to the Ford sponsored teams to step up and justify Fords faith in them and start producing results. Ford now needs to get their best driver line up together in one team aka Frosty and Courtney together in FPR cars and lift their game.

For those that think the V8's are dying, event crowd numbers and merchandise sales would suggest otherwise. It's only your interest that has diminished so enough of the dooms day crap.

As for Production car racing pfftt seen it before, "I'd rather watch paint dry"

Edited 30/07/09 11:15 AM by macka'sxr6t

[Evil F6]

I rarely watch Formula silhouette these days or F1. Rally is the best to watch and we don't even get the 30 minute wrap up any more.

[MenaceF6]

Yep there was no surprise here when I heard this. Think I'm more disappointed that Lowndes is going back to Expensive Daewoo as I honestly believe he would prefer to be driving the blue ovals brand. In the end he's chosen to sign with team vodafone and they've decided to change. I've enjoyed the dominance of Team Vodafone over the last couple of years but they really haven't promoted Ford at all, I can't remember the last time I heard them pass on a thanks to Ford. Sponsors expect bang for their buck and in this money driven world winning isn't the only thing you have to do.

Oh well, times change, nothing to say 888 are going to be the magic bullet that Expensive Daewoo expect them to be, it's going to be hard to go back to hating Lowndes, no so Whinncup, he always comes across as being bit arrogant and this crap about would you work for someone if they weren't paying is a joke, Whinncup is employed by Team Vodafone not Ford, Ford have their factory team and drivers.

As for Ford pulling money on teams I'm pretty sure they were still offering support to all the teams that had previously to a lesser degree, all the teams new a while ago, I remember Roland Dane and Dick Johnson saying that it was about one third of there budget, ye that's a lot but saying there not giving you anything isn't true.

Like others have already said the old win on Sunday sell on Monday just isn't true, the very reason that Ford has redirected there funding is because there reporting has shown that it's not as bigger factor as it once was, so you can't blame them. If they wanted to shaft Expensive Daewoo and V8SC they could withdraw from the series all togeather, I don't think Expensive Daewoo fans would be to interested in watching one Expensive Daewoo beat another, I don't know about you but I can't go 30 seconds watching the many Porsche cup races, makes me wanna throw a VB bottle at the TV.

I don't think you have to worry about teams that are currently supported by Team Vodafones engineering department, as far as I'm aware they'll continue to supply FG tech support and chasis design to the likes of DJR, this is one of there biggest income streams now.

Expensive Daewoo on the other hand, now this is rumor granted but apparently they pulled out all the stops to secure team vodafone and threw massive amounts of cash at them, now that there signed they have to work out how they can afford it, rumour has suggested that they may withdraw support for GRM and BOC, that would be a ball buster for Brad Jones.

Anyway sorry for the long winded post, as for me I'll continue to follow the mighty Fords, I've always followed the brand and not the drivers, it was fords awesome cars of the past and the present that attracts me to them, the cars that we can buy are miles in front of the Team Red and at the end of the day that's what matters most to me. For all the people that have said they'll jump ship or give there support to vodafone still, ohh well each to their own, my bloods blue and always will be, I guess yours is red.

Ps. Ford Bring back Ambrose........(the whisper is possibly 2011/12).....the rumour mill at it's finest.

[mattri]

It will be really interesting to see what kind of reception lowndes and whincup get this weekend at Sandown, im thinking its not going to be very nice

[azasturbo]

Roland Dane is scum, 888 had been in breach of there continuing ford contracts for years. Roland had a choice honor his contract with ford or loose funding. He chose to loose the funding.

Roland wanted to race scumadores all along it was just his manipulative way of going about it that made half the idiots on here blame ford for what has happened.

888 are a disgrace

[azasturbo]

Employee Announcement

July 30 2009

Team,

I thought it was important that you should hear directly from me about yesterday's announcement that the Triple 8 race team and its drivers, including Craig Lowndes, will be racing Commodores next year. There is a lot of speculation and some negative commentary around about the decision so I’m giving you the facts.

Firstly, we spent a considerable amount of money sponsoring Triple 8 for a number of years. We honoured every single aspect of our sponsorship arrangement with them and in return, we asked for one thing – that they respect our brand by painting their cars blue. This wasn’t just a simple request, it was written into their contracts every single year – and each year Triple 8 chose to defy that contractual obligation and paint their cars red. That may seem relatively minor but it’s not. We’re running a business here and investing significant sums of money in supporting motorsport. If someone continues to take large sums of money from us every year while continuing to blatantly defy the obligations they’ve agreed to in order to obtain that money, then we have no choice but to end that arrangement.

Make no mistake – Triple 8 was given every opportunity to live up to the contractual arrangements they agreed to. Eventually we said enough – as any responsible company would do. I make no apologies for doing that. It’s not just about the cars being painted blue, it’s about whether or not we have an open and trusting relationship with an organisation that significantly benefits from their involvement with us. That wasn’t there and, in the market environment we’ve been facing over the last few years, we simply cannot afford to continue giving money to a team that does not respect our brand.

Secondly, we are hugely disappointed that Craig Lowndes will be returning to Expensive Daewoo at the end of this year. We’re disappointed because he’s a great talent and we’re disappointed because we have gone out of our way to welcome Craig into the Ford family since he moved to us in 2001. We’re also disappointed because we found out this was happening on Tuesday evening. Our sponsorship of Craig has hugely benefited him financially since 2001 and I have yet to receive a phone call from Craig himself telling me of his decision to re-sign with Triple 8 and subsequently return to Holden. We had every intention of continuing our relationship with Craig into next year but this is now not possible.

We continue to support motorsport in Australia through our direct sponsorship of FPR and SBR and we also continue to provide significant in-kind support to other teams such as DJR. Motorsport continues to be a useful tool for us to communicate our brand promise to our customers. You can rest assured that we will continue to be involved in motorsport in Australia in the future and are completely focussed on delivering winning results.

Thanks for your ongoing passion and support.

Marin

[tab]

Let's play 'spot the blue' on this car...

[HIRO F6]

that's last years car tab. This years car is prodominantly blue. That pic was taken at Oran Park in 08. Ironically, third car from the front is a 888 car still with the Ford logo on the windscreen visor.

Edited 31/07/09 02:42 AM by HIRO F6

[tab]

Yeah I know, but that's when they started the crap about car colour.

If vodafone is their major sponsor then which sponsor's colour are they going to use? It's a massive cop-out on Fords behalf, they even sell red cars themselves FFS. Absolute joke.