lowdnes on the move again

[GRPIII]

looks like lowdnes is moving to the new prodrive outfit, which is the old ford credit racing. seto sold of the operation to prodrive, so it looks like lowndes & seto.
word has it the the new BA falcon is even worse than the au in recent aerodynamic tests.
lastest on holden bright & murphy to k-mart
young lions to knoica series
still no formal word & the brock twr deal.

[Ford Boy]

i heard prodrive was joining forces with 00motorsport......

[enforcer]

I heard prodrive and Ford have shafted 00 Motorsport.

[mustang1966]

Rumour has it that Prodrive have brought Glenn Setons level 1 franchise. He has signed a 2 year deal with Prodrive so he will be with the team in 2003 and 2004. Craig Lowndes will be his team mate.

I understand that Prodrive were looking at the IMS franchise, which HRO have now leased. It is understood that Rod Nash is talking to Prodrive at this point in time, which means if that goes through David Besnard will be the 3rd in the Prodrive team.

Pretty much most people feel that the Rat will be at Betta team next year and has swaped placed with Crash Bandicoot Wilson. A friend of mine was speaking to Rocky Canto and young Dean is on the verge of signing with a QLD based Ford team. I think he could be there other Betta Driver.

With HRO/HRT it seems that Mark Skaife and Murphy will be in the HRT cars with Brighty and Kelly in the Kmart cars. The other 2 level 2 franchises will be Paul Weel and the team brock driver.

[mustang1966]

Enforcer,

Maybe Bob Forbes was not willing to sell his franchise/licence; they seem to be valuable commodities just ask Tony Longhurst. I don't think Prodrive wanted to come into V8supercars on just a lease arrangement.


Seems after the sales of merchandise for Team Brock at Bathurst and towards the end of season, HRO were keen to have his name under their banner.

I can see Prodrive following the HRT model with Craig Lowndes as the star. Seems to me that the Lowndes/Prodrive combination is looking at a bright future.

[enforcer]

I stand by my original comment.
By the way, IMS is still on the market...Ramano's franchise has gone to Team Dynamik.
I would like to see an even championship, but fragmenting your resources is not the way to do it.
I can see nothing but another year of TWR Aust domination with 6 cars in 2003.
Holden support their 4 nominated teams to the hilt and dont go into direct competition with them or shuffle the drivers around.
I think too many people get sucked in by the Arrows/Walkinshaw thing. HRT do the job locally with a well organised, professional team.
Arrows, now gone apparently, would have had zero input to the red cars I reckon. So why does everyone seem to think that Prodrive will solve all the Ford v8 supercar problems.

[mustang1966]

Enforcer

I have to agree with you. I know HRT efforts are done here in Australia. Mate it took several lean years for HRT to get to where they are now. And all that hard work has paid off for them. I still think we will find Brighty in a Kmart car next year. I guess only time will tell.

If anyone thinks prodrive is going to walk in and start winning races, they will be wrong. I think Ford/Prodrive are going to follow the model set down by HRT. Geoff Polities started it by bring Lowndes in and making him a ford driver. They have brought in a young popular driver, that has proven himself at HRT. Now what Ford need to do is supply him the car and a good team (like HRT) and get some consistancy, then wins might head thier way.

Blueprint is not the total answer that many believe will make the 50/50 ratio work. More work has to come from the Ford and other Holden teams. It's more than just throwing money into a team and hope it all pans out.

Hard work, a great team and consistancy are a part of winning a championship.

Marcos Ambrose could had more points this year but mistakes in the pits and other problems with the car cost him points. The HRT outfit were consistant and dd not suffer as many problem at critical rounds this year.

[GTSCoup]

It looks to me that Ford Motorsport are in such a quandry they are throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

To set up an official Ford team with their number 1 driver and run it for 1 year only to jump over to another team (to the detriment of the first team) looks like they are panicking a bit too much and will try anything for a quick fix. Those results don't happen in one year!.

What if the Prodrive/Seton/Lowndes team, if it happens that way as it hasn't to my knowledge been announced yet, doesn't win next year?. Will they then drag their money and driver out of that team and throw it at someone else?

[SWRT]

Team Prodrive maybe just a different name for 00 motorsport and Prodrive have bought out GSR.
GSR/00 motorsport both joined under a Prodrive team and Lowndes/Seton/Besnard/Forbes? drive in for Prodrive/Ford/FPV factory team.

[brchi17]

Well some interesting news !!!
I've heard that prodrive have take over 00 Motorsport & they wanted to run 3 cars so (because of the new franchise rules) they were going to use Glenn Seton's franchise to do so with Glenn driving under the Prodrive/Ford Credit & Craig & David Besnard driving under the Prodrive/FPV bannor.
As for the news of Glenn running 2 cars, that has been put on the backburner, which is why the prepossed announcement on Friday Dec 20th ended up being a 'nothing' announcement from GSR.
cheers.