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Tickford Racing boss Tim Edwards has confirmed his team is building two new cars and will return the Ford Mustang currently in its fleet owned by Phil Munday.
Earlier this year Munday was forced to shut the doors of his Tickford Racing satellite team 23Red Racing after primary sponsor Milwaukee Tool pulled its sponsorship.
The team’s departure from the championship came just weeks after the coronavirus pandemic struck and put the Supercars season on hold.
As a result, Will Davison was left out of a full-time drive for the remainder of the season.
The departure of Davison subsequently opened the door for James Courtney to make a return having only just left Jonathon Webb’s outfit Team Sydney.
Boost Mobile owner Peter Adderton soon struck a deal to lease the Munday-owned Ford Mustang and Racing Entitlements Contract for the remainder of the 2020 season.
Tickford Racing Team Principal Edwards has confirmed the car will soon be returned to Munday once given a post-season refresh.
“The biggest thing on our plate at the moment, clearly, the cars have just been on the road for over three months,” Edwards told Speedcafe.com.
“Although they had a major birthday for Bathurst, under the skin, they’re in dire need of some paints and some TLC. So the guys have got a bit of work to do there.
“We’ve got a couple of new cars to build that are well underway with. We’re going to return Phil his car within the next month. Because, obviously, we just borrowed that off him.
“So the guys on the floor have got a lot to do. Then commercially, we’re doing what we do. We’re negotiating with all our partners and slowly locking them all in.
“One of them is actually pretty much just painted,” Edwards said of the new chassis.
“We’ve plumbed and wired and that. The other one is fabricated, it just needs painting and then assembling.
“So rather than just leaving them to sit there in that state, they’re worth more to us as a rolling chassis, than they are as a shell sitting there like that.”
The fate of the Munday Mustang is not yet clear.
However, Speedcafe.com understands his Munday-owned Racing Entitlements Contract has already been purchased by Tim Blanchard of CoolDrive Auto Parts.
Rumours circling the Supercars paddock indicate Blanchard will take his Racing Entitlements Contract that he currently runs out of the Brad Jones Racing to establish his own two-car team.
With two cars in the works, Edwards denied suggestions he had onsold any of his existing cars in the fleet to Blanchard.
With the car that Courtney raced most recently set to be returned, Munday will soon have two Ford Mustangs in his possession.
The second of Munday’s car has sat idle since the end of 2019. That car was brought out of hibernation late last season after Chaz Mostert crashed heavily at the Gold Coast 600.
The crashed car was initially written off but later repaired for the 2020 season in which it was raced by Jack Le Brocq.
Meanwhile, the spare was sent back to Munday once Mostert left at the end of last year.
“He’s still got the other one,” said Edwards.
“I don’t know where it is. I think it’s in one of his man caves somewhere. Which is a Mustang, which is the one Chaz Mostert raced at the last couple of rounds of last season.
“And then after the end of last season, that car got a bit of TLC and we sent it to Phil and we’ve not seen it since. It’ll be a barn find one day with all of Phil’s other cars.”
Asked whether he needed to source a Racing Entitlements Contract amid suggestions that Blanchard has purchased Munday’s, Edwards said that was “part of our commercial plans for next year”.
“We’re just going through what we do this time of year, every year, locking in all our partners and drivers, and staff, and that,” said Edwards.
“That’s just all part of the merry-go-round that we go through each year.”
