Sonic Motor Racing will be the first Fujitsu V8 Series team to compete with an FG Falcon in the Fujitsu V8 Series.
Next year’s FV8 regulations allow the FG chassis to compete, and Sonic has purchased Triple Eight Race Engineering’s last available FG Falcon – T8 020 – last raced by Craig Lowndes at the end of the 2009 V8 Supercars season.
Sonic’s regular driver Rodney Jane will use the new FG next year.
The driver of the team’s second entry, steered by Tim Blanchard this year, is yet to be confirmed for 2011.
Sonic team owner Mick Ritter said that the new chassis is an improvement on the T8-built BFs that his team currently campaigns.
“It’s a very nicely engineered car. There’s lot of little progression and it is very well put together,” he told Speedcafe.com.au.
“There are some minor differences, just with some of the attention to detail, but it’s minor.
“We’ll be the first, and we might be the only team with the availability and running the FG, which is a good thing.
“I don’t see an opportunity where they’ll be more FGs come through. There might be an FPR car, maybe, but I don’t see any others coming in.”
With Jane locked in, the team is on the hunt for a driver capable of winning next year’s title. Blanchard finished second in this year’s title, and while he remains near the top of the list of candidates, he is by no means confirmed.
“We’re looking for a second year driver that can win the championship,” Ritter said.
“We’ve finished second in our first two years in the Fujitsu Series with rookie drivers, and we need to step up and win it next year, simple as that.
“For a team that’s only been doing V8s for two years, I think we’ve done pretty well. We can hold our heads high. We’ve won the Mike Cable young driver award both years and we’ve won races (with James Moffat and Blanchard).
“Tim did a good job this year. We’d like to have him back for next year, but we’ve all got budgets in mind. We’ll see how it plays out over the next few weeks.”
