Walkinshaw Racing, also owner of Holden Special Vehicles, has reaffirmed plans for its desire to run four cars in the 2016 V8 Supercars series. The report comes from V8 Supercars itself, as it sat down for a brief chat with Ryan Walkinshaw.
Walkinshaw says his he needs to ensure each car must be full funded, as the sponsorship market continues to rebound for the series. Currently, two factory-backed Holden Racing Team VF Commodores sit under Walkinshaw’s wing, piloted by James Courtney and Garth Tander.
Walkinshaw also has a contract with Supercheap Auto to run a third Commodore with Tim Slade’s expertise, though, the contract expires at the end of 2015 with no renewal in site yet.
Finally, the fourth car is the Team 18 customer entry, funded by Charlie Schwerkolt, and driven by Lee Holdsworth.
When asked how many cars would be ideal, Walkinshaw had the following to say:
A lot of that would depend on how the discussions go with Supercheap. We need to make sure we have four fully funded cars and if we have four fully funded cars then that’s what we will focus on doing.
And if not, if we think there is a benefit on going to two or three – and we have done that in the past as well – then we will evaluate that closer to the end of the season. We are not going to make any decisions on that now.
And we want to have as many cars as possible as a standard, but they have to be fully funded and we have got to be happy with them.
We have not found it too bad. We have a fair few big names on the go, we are one of the stronger teams and we are one of the teams that give a lot of value back to their sponsors.
Some of the smaller teams I am sure have had some difficulty out there with the current market. I think it’s an improvement on where it’s been the last few years and to be honest we are pretty confident we will retain all the sponsors we want to retain and hopefully add a few more.
So we are pretty confident with that at the moment.
Moving on from Walkinshaw racing itself, the conversation then shifted to V8 Supercars in general. We find out Walkinshaw is ready to embrace the addition of turbocharged four-cylinders, V6s and more in the series. Though, he states the series should always be an affordable four-door sedan base vehicle, and is no fan of the addition of coupes in the series.
“I am personally not massive fan of the two-door thing,” he revealed. “I think it should be four-door affordable family cars we are racing and that is a point of difference against GT racing. But I think the engine is one thing we should embrace change with and I think fans will be surprised how exciting that can be.”
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