Triple Eight closes on new Holden deal

After switching from Ford to Holden at the end of the 2009 season, TeamVodafone has continued its reign as the sport’s benchmark, collecting the most wins of any team, including last year’s drivers’ championship.

While the squad’s on-track performance and considerable commercial nous positions it as the perfect candidate to follow Kelly Racing’s lead in ushering a new manufacturer into the sport, its director Roland Dane expects to stay with Holden once its current deal runs out at the end of the year.

“If we were going anywhere, we would have gone by now – it would have been obvious,” Dane told Speedcafe.com when asked of the potential to switch manufacturers.

“I have no plans on going anywhere and hopefully Holden hasn’t got plans to move on either. We’ve been good for each other, in my opinion.

“I’m pretty relaxed about it. We’ll sort everything in the fullness of time, and when we’re ready, we’ll make the relevant announcement.”

The team’s title sponsorship deal with Vodafone and its driving contracts with Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes are also up for renewal at the end of 2012.

Speedcafe.com understands that Lowndes is close to inking a new deal with the team, while Whincup is still assessing his future goals in motorsport.

Lowndes, Whincup and Vodafone have been with Triple Eight since 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively.

As expected, Dane says that keeping all three assets on the team’s books is an obvious objective.

“Continuity is always good. You want to keep everything working for you, so why change it?,” said Dane of the three deals.

“At the end of the day, you still have to do deals with people – drivers, sponsors or whatever. You’ve got to continue to be looking and be receptive to what people’s needs are.

“Our job is to look at that and work with those needs, and that’s what we’ll do over the course of the year.”