As first revealed by Speedcafe, the Ford homologation team has taken over the supply of the V8 engines to the Ford Supercars teams.

The deal basically sees DJR take over the Herrod Performance Engines shops, based nearby DJR’s HQ.

The shift comes as part of significant changes at DJR led by Ryan Story, who will return to the helm as team principal next year.

When news of the DJR/HPE deal broke there were some raised eyebrows in the paddock regarding a team supplying rivals with engines.

While acknowledging that perception, DJR CEO David Noble told the KTM Summer Grill that the engine shop will remain as independent as it was in the past.

“We need to make sure that it stays independent,” he said.

“There’s no doubt that we need to put an engine shop manager in place to keep that independence so that the [other Ford] teams understand that there is no advantage for us, it’s about the growth of the Ford engine for the category.”

When asked if that means the engine shop will be quarantined from the race team, Noble said: “Always has been.

“The data is independently held by Supercars, [Supercars engine boss] Craig [Hasted] has all of that. And [outgoing Head of Motorsport] Adrian [Burgess] had that information.

“The engine shop under Herrods has not had that availability to data and that will maintain.

“We’ll have contracts with teams and that understanding will be clear, and an agreement with Supercars that that is the way that it needs to happen.

“Same with the engine pool. All of the engines were tested, they were then sent to Craig, they were sealed and the pool was allocated from there. That will remain.”

For more from David Noble watch the full episode of the KTM Summer Grill.