Where were the posters screaming ‘Falcon Wins Bathurst’ for the winning drivers to hold in victory lane? Where are the full page ads in today’s newspapers shouting that Ford won Australia’s biggest motor race?
It seems Ford has forgotten that time-honoured tradition of “Win On Sunday, Sell On Monday”.
In fact, word on the street over the weekend at Bathurst was that Ford will scrap its V8 Supercar involvement at the end of this year. Well you can’t claim motor racing doesn’t sell cars if you’re not prepared to back your teams by having promotional material ready to run when your brand wins our most important race.
And with Ford counting-down the days to the end of local manufacturing, surely maintaining a strong presence in the biggest category of Australian motor sport would have been an essential part of a campaign to reinforce new car buyers that Ford is here for the long haul – particularly given one of the world’s best motorsport and business operators, American Roger Penske, has purchased a majority holding in one of your biggest teams (Dick Johnson Racing). But we don’t work in St Kilda Road, the glitzy smoked glass and chrome strip of skyscrapers in Melbourne where car company advertising agencies do their thing.
So while Ford wants to keep it a secret, we can tell you the Pepsi Max/Ford Performance Racing (yes, Ford’s own factory team) Falcon driven by Chaz Mostert and Paul Morris yesterday snared victory in a sensational Supercheap Autos Bathurst 1000 after starting in last place and passing the Red Bull Racing Holden Commodore of Jamie Whincup/Paul Dumbrell for the lead on the very last lap.
It was a remarkable race punctuated by record-breaking laps, an unprecedented 63-minute pause to repair a pothole in the newly-resurfaced track and multiple safety car interventions which meant most cars were running on near-empty fuel tanks at the end of the 161-lap marathon.
Indeed Mostert’s last-lap pass of Whincup came as the championship leader’s Holden Commodore simply ran out of fuel after trying the stretch a 2.5 lap reserve fuel tank to run three laps. It was an audacious ‘win-or-nothing’ gamble by Whincup which saw him finish fifth after handing victory to Mostert, a talented 22 year-old novice driver smartly pared by Ford Performance Racing with wily Gold Coast veteran Paul Morris.
Not that the Pepsi Max Ford Falcon had an easy weekend. Mostert crashed the number five Falcon in qualifying which resulted in their last-place (26th…whatever happed to the days of 60 cars starting the Bathurst enduro?) starting position. And Morris was one of the victims of the turn two pothole which brought the race to a halt for 62-minutes just before the halfway mark.
We tip our caps too to the Nissan team run by the Kelly Brothers. Arriving at Bathurst not yet two years into their campaign to race V8-powered Nissan Altimas, team driver James Moffat and Taz Douglas claimed second place for the Japanese giant.
Best of the Holden Commodores was the third-placed machine driven by Nick Percat and Britain’s Oliver Gavin.
So while Ford seems like it’s trying to keep things on the hush-hush, we actually think last weekend’s Bathurst success by its factory FPR team is worth shouting about. And like Manly V Easts in the NRL, Collingwood V Carlton in the AFL, Holden V Ford is part of Australian sporting folklore and the Blue Oval company must remain part of the picture (after-all Nissan and Volvo think it’s worthwhile).
