In linking with Walkinshaw Andretti United, Ford stated that it was providing factory backing to all Mustang teams in the Gen3 era of Supercars – however that is news to Blanchard Racing Team’s Tim Blanchard who is yet to see support from the manufacturer.
Shell V-Power Racing Team, Tickford Racing, WAU, Grove Racing and BRT will all run Ford Mustang machinery in 2023 when Gen3 comes into effect.
WAU made much out of gaining factory backing during the announcement of its defection to the Blue Oval, correlating the deal with a better shot at Supercars titles.
Manufacturer support does not mean the same thing to all teams under the Ford umbrella though, and currently to BRT Team Principal Blanchard it means nothing at all.
“We’ve had meetings with them and are still having meetings with them but at this stage there’s no backing in place,” Blanchard told AUTO ACTION.
“We haven’t had any support from Ford and don’t have any currently.
“The more backing and partners you have the better you’re going to be, with more resources at your disposal. It’s not a detriment to us not having Ford backing but it would be beneficial in the future.
“It was news to me (the announcement that Ford will back all its teams). When I read it, I thought ‘no one has told me that!’
Grove Racing, a team that has shown significant improvement so far this year, should also benefit from Ford’s promise in theory.
Team Owner Stephen Grove was unable to shed too much light on the details of his deal with the manufacturer but revealed that 2023 will see Ford up its support of the team.
“It just means that we have a commercial relationship with the Ford business here in Australia,” Grove told AA.
“There’s some correlation back to Ford motorsport in the US, but that’s more based around the development of Gen3.
“2023 and beyond is an overflow of what we’ve had in 2021 and 2022. The relationship was originally established by Todd in 2021 and then we had the same relationship with Ford in 2022 and we’ve extended that relationship beyond 2023.
“The relationship with Ford is based on what car we want to run.
“There are some commercial realities around it, but that’s not the decision-making process.
“Our decision was based on what brand we want to support going forward, it was about the relationship we have, the commitment they have to the sport and also the ability for us to run Mustangs.”
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