It tells us a lot about Triple Eight, Ford and General Motors, and their respective positions in the current Supercars ecosystem.
Triple Eight is about winning and achieving commercial success through high-level engineering. This new deal gives them scope to do more of both.
Ford and its upper management are all-in on motorsport right now. It’s heavily engaged in the Supercars Championship as part of a global marketing approach.
And then there’s GM, which largely pulled out of Australia when it closed Holden and has remained in Supercars through a deal with the category based around an IP agreement.
When Triple Eight began sounding out the manufacturer market in mid-2024, it was looking for a multi-year plan that would fit its own growth objectives.
At that stage Toyota is already understood to have been off the table, well down the road to Supercars with Walkinshaw Andretti United its destination.
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So, what Triple Eight faced was GM – currently with a globally out-of-production Camaro, no apparent plan to replace it and a tiny sponsorship budget – and the gung-ho Ford.
Talks with the Blue Oval began around Bathurst 1000 time and led to a Triple Eight delegation heading to Ford Performance headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, in mid-December.
A five-strong party of team principal Jamie Whincup, manager Mark Dutton, technical lead Jeromy Moore and co-owners Earl Evans and Steve Blackmore spent all of two days there.
But it was enough. They headed home from the US with a plan as good as set, convinced they were onto a winner on and off the track.
The result was a one-year extension with GM for 2025 and what is understood to be a five-year Ford commitment from ’26 with scope to stretch far beyond Supercars.
Opportunities abound from GTs to the Finke Desert Race – programs that Chevrolet also run and yet Triple Eight has not been involved in.
There’s even talk of Triple Eight work on Ford Australia road car projects as part of the the team’s push to monetise its engineering artistry.
At the core, though, is a significant Supercars sponsorship and a union that is forward-focused and business-driven, but also with a touch of nostalgia.
Accompanying the announcement at a flash Ford Performance event in Charlotte was a video montage of Triple Eight’s Bathurst three-peat from 2006-2008.
The third of those wins came months after Ford inexplicably decided to axe support of Triple Eight and concentrate its backing behind Ford Performance Racing and Stone Brothers Racing.
Holden subsequently swooped and the sustained run of success that followed leaves Ford’s faux pas as the single biggest marketing mistake in Australian motorsport history.
While this latest deal cannot fully right that wrong, it is a full-circle moment that marks another monumental shift for the sport.
GM’s public reaction to Friday’s news stating that it shares the disappointment of fans at Triple Eight’s decision is not without hubris.
Just as Ford drove Triple Eight into GM’s arms back then, GM has all but returned the favour. What the fans need from GM is action to show it is committed to the sport beyond this season.
Either way, Triple Eight is moving on.
It’s about to embark on an unusual year as the team continues to race Camaros while in the background preparing to hit the ground running with Mustang in 2026.
The vibe given off at the Melbourne end of the launch on Friday was typified by the fact it already had a Gen3 Mustang wrapped in Red Bull blue, complete with its gambit of sub-sponsors.
It was borrowed from BRT, whose own sponsors showed through underneath, but in a world of plain polo shirts and bland statements announcing future contracts, this was as brash and bold as it gets.
Notably, Ford wants Triple Eight to this year spearhead any homologation work that needs to be done for 2026, when it will have a new foe in Toyota to compete with.
Triple Eight is keen to sink its teeth into the Ford package too, although seems equally eager to prove there’s not much wrong with what the Mustang men have now.
Whincup stressed that the most important element the team needed to be convinced of before committing to the change was that it can win with Mustang.
Amid a move that raises plenty of questions of others, Triple Eight’s ability to evolve and keep winning appears the safest bet of all.
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