Personal preview on the teams by Lindsay Weston

There have been more team changes this year than in Supercar and recent ATCC history. So my goal here is to bring you up to speed on the raft of changes the sent shockwave after shockwave of driver and sponsor shifts from the 31st of December, so you’re not left dazed and confused at the start line.

Let’s start with the most publicised shift in since the retirement of the 05. For the first time since the 1989, there will be no Mark Skaife on the starting grid at the first round of the championship. The series most successful driver decided to hang up the helmet at the conclusion of the 08 season. This move sent a shockwave through the series and began a chain reaction as change after change took place with the teams.

Team Vodafone (Triple 8)
Team Vodafone’s most publicised off season story was a never ending sop from team director, Roland Dane and new Champ, Jamie Whincup, about how Ford have “abandon them”.

A couple of weeks ago, Touring Car Times learned that new Triple 8 sponsor, Hogs Breath Café, would have its logo replace the Ford badges on the car. This move could be a stroke of marketing genius, or create many enemies among the Ford fan base. Norton 360 Antivirus has also signed as an associate sponsor of the team.

You should notice a distinct change in the attitude of Jamie Whincup this year too, who considers himself somewhat “Racing Royalty”. I for one hope he can back up his comments, or his fifteen minutes of fame, may be just that.

The biggest change to this team is the number on the rear Window of Whincup’s car, and it might be there for a while.

Toll – Holden Racing Team
As afore motioned, Mark Skaife has decided to retire and has been replace by Will Davidson, who comes over form Jim Beam Racing. Garth Tander will become the “Franchise diver”.

The introduction of Davidson should see both cars run well, although, don’t be surprised if this takes a little time. Tander should be strong from the start.

The cars will look slightly different with day-glow red taking over as the primary colour, and the Daewoo white becoming the secondary. Toll steps up its sponsorship to become sole major sponsor in the team with Mobil dropping to an associate.

Sprint Gas Racing (Tasman Motorsport)
Jason Bargwanna will replace Jason Richards, who left the team at the conclusion of his contract, and will line up alongside Kiwi veteran, Greg Murphy. The team has undergone a number of changes internally as well.

The team retains its major sponsor from last year and the cars have changed from blue to red. However, it has lost its factory backing from Holden.

I would love to see this team have a good year this season, but I don’t think they have all the pieces in place to do it this year. I see another disappointing year for this team.

Stone Brother Racing
Stone Brothers released their number one driver in James Courtney at the end of last year, and replaced him with Porsche driver, Alex Davidson, the older brother of Will. Along with their new driver, they signed a new major sponsor in IRWIN Tools. Together with Van Gisbergen’s SP Tools, they have earned the new nickname of the “Toolshed”.

It is hard to say how this team will go in 2009. SBR have said that this year will be a building year, but you should see Both Alex and Shane run well at some points in the season.

SBR will also build cars for Jason Bright’s Britek.

Ford Performance Racing
The team enters the 09 season virtually unchanged, apart from two new FG’s with a uniform blue paint job.

FPR had the best results out of the Ford teams in testing. If the team can adapt to the new car quickly, both drivers should make a run for the title.

Kelly Racing
The new Kelly team, wholly owned by Kelly family, will run four cars in 2009. Both Rick and Todd will drive Holden’s sponsored by Jack Daniel’s, with Jack Perkins behind the wheel of the Dodo entry and rookie Dale Wood driving for Red Rooster and Hi-Tech Oils.

The team is basically the old Larry Perkins team with many of Perkins’ old employees joining the new outfit. Larry’s engineering company will help the team with development.

This team is another unknown. It will be fun to compare the brothers performances throughout the year as they take to the track in the same machinery. I think you will definitely see both brothers at the pointy end at some time this season, but I don’t think they have enough yet to challenge for the championship.

Watch out for Jack though. He may put in some impressive runs this year.

Brad Jones Racing (Team BOC/WOW Racing)
This team is finally starting to look like a real contender in 2009. BJR bought well in the off season, securing hot talent Jason Richards to replace Andrew Jones in the BOC Holden. The returning McConville has been super quick in testing and had a solid 2008.

This should be a Breakout year for BJR. I can’t say enough of how talented JR is and I believe this team will really perform, especially in the middle part of the year.

Jim Beam Racing (Dick Johnson Racing)
DJR like Triple 8, DJR will race his cars this year without full factory support. The long time Ford team will still receive a good amount of parts and technical support from the ailing company.

However, for a organisation that has lost a lot of sponsorship income from Ford’s withdrawal from the team, they are not afraid to spend big paying close to a million dollars for the services of the driver whose career highlight was on Dancing with the Stars. James Courtney, who had a breakout season with SBR last year with his first race win and only 6 crashes, will join one of ford’s favourite son’s son, Steven Johnson in the Jim Beam Racers.

This team had better get the cheque book out as James may cost them some cars later down the track. The good thing for now is that both cars have been solid during testing. If they can hold this kind of form for the start of the season, they may be alright.

Supercheap Auto Racing (Paul Morris Motorsports)
This team made headlines in the offseason when they announced they were in talks with Canadian F1 Champion, Jacques Villeneuve. This deal never occurred though as Jacques wanted to stay in Canada and claim welfare while he looks for a drive in the Americas to avoid relocating his family.

Instead the team sign Fujitsu standout, Tim Slade, in one of the smartest off-season moves of the season. I can’t say enough about this young man. He will be a great asset to SCAR and over time will develop into one of the greats. He just has that look about him.

Russell Ingall should help Slade’s cause even more. With over 100 years of racing experience under his belt, SCAR’s franchise driver will be a great mentor for the rookie campaigner. Rusty is coming off a stellar 2008 where he grabbed a couple of podiums and was in contention to win a few races.

This team should see further improvement in 09, but they need to exercise patience and not get in over their heads. If Rusty has a few years left in him, this could be a formidable team.

Walkinshaw Performance
This is the new team owned by Tom Walkinshaw, and will replace the HSV Dealer Team as HRT’s number two.

Nobody is expecting much from this outfit, which could be a good or a bad thing. One has to wonder how long Paul Dumbrell can hold a seat in this series without any results.

Paul will need to perform this year or his days could be numbered. For the first time in his career he will be the franchise drive in a team. He will be joined by David Reynolds, who is an uncertainty going into 2009.

The best thing about this team is the Sponsors. For the first time in the history of sport, Bundaberg Rum, Australia’s Iconic hard liquor, will sponsor a car. This team will sell a lot of shirts. Autobahn is a very popular brand as well. I hope for the sponsor’s sake that this team can put together some results. But it is hard to see that happening.

Garry Rodgers Motorsport
Another team with no major changes coming into 2009. Lee has shown some great pace in testing and I believe he will again run up the pointy end of the field. I expect Caruso to show some signs of improvement as well.

Rumours going around that this team may be doing it tough in the future if more sponsorship cannot be found, but so far, GRM has not commented on the state of their financial situation

The rest
As mentioned earlier in this article, Britek will be run out of the SBR stable. This should prove a good move for the now one car team and should see Brighty up the pointy end of the field. It will take a while for him to get his new FG though, and will have to make do with an SBR BF for the time being.

Paul Cruickshank Racing expands to two cars this season, one for Fabian Coulthard and one for Michael Patrizi. Coulthard (the cousin of David) should show same signs of brilliance this season like he did last season. I am still bewildered that none of the other teams tried to sign him in the off season.

Marcus Marshall has started his own team and Rod Nash Racing will return with Tony D’Alberto, But I wouldn’t expect to see them much, unless they are getting lapped or in the fence.