Following Holden’s resurrection of the Holden Young Lions driver development program for the 2006 Australian V8 Supercar Championship, one wonders what Ford’s reaction to such an initiative must be writes
Matthew Agius.
Fabian Coulthard, Alan Gurr, Tony D’Alberto along with V8 Supercar rookies Shane Price and Jack Perkins are sure to reap the benefits of the revised Holden Young Lions scheme in 2006. After a hiatus of several years, Holden Motorsport rekindled its development flame and has allowed these five drivers to benefit from its vast resources.
Certainly, the three-peat of Ford championship victories in the V8 Supercar Series is something that Holden would love to put an end to in 2006, but by developing tomorrow’s young guns, a future champion could be driving in one of the less-competitive cars today.
Many Holden and V8 heroes got their first gig in a Holden Young Lions Commodore. The likes of Todd and Rick Kelly both had their first sprint-series drives in HYL machinery, whilst Jason Bargwanna and Steven Ellery both began in the program before later defecting to Ford.
But whilst Ford has won three championships on the trot, a look down their driver lineup reveals little driver development, and a long list of ex-Holden drivers.
Reigning champion Russell Ingall, 2006 title favourite Craig Lowndes, Clipsal 500 winner Jamie Whincup, the aforementioned Bargwanna, Will Davison, and to a lesser extent James Courtney have all started their sprint race careers in a Commodore.
Certainly of these drivers only one has netted the Blue Oval a championship and have yet to deliver the faithful a Bathurst win in a drought that extends seven years. In fact only three Falcon drivers – Steven Johnson, Warren Luff and Mark Winterbottom – have spent their entire career in a Falcon since joining the series as a youngster. The only other driver to spend his entire career under the Ford umbrella is veteran John Bowe, who will probably retire from full time competition within the next five years.
