Oh what fun it is to throw pottery into the air and watch as all the bits come back down to earth and smash into a million tiny pieces.
http://www.tripleeight.co.uk/press/?storyId=395&Id=1
Vauxhall announced today that VX Racing will not return to the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) in 2010. The Luton-based manufacturer, the most successful in modern touring car history, will continue to campaign three cars this year, driven by Fabrizio Giovanardi, Matt Neal and Andrew Jordan.
Take particular note of the first word in that press release... Vauxhall. It is Vauxhall who are in self destruct mode, as they like the rest of GM plunge ever so closer to Chapter 11, possibly Chapter 7 proceedings. However, Triple 8 themselves seem totally unfazed by it all.
“It is not the end of Triple Eight though, far from it. We will be back next season, albeit in a different guise, still doing what we do best: Winning races and promoting our partners and sponsors products in the very best possible way."
It's not like this sort of thing hasn't happened before to Triple 8. One only needs to look closer to the V8Supercars to realise that Ford Motor Company who were ambivalent towards them are now outright hostile towards them and it would appear vice versa.
According to all internal documents and the website, Triple 8 otherwise known as Team Vodafone apparently no longer run Fords but "Pigs". Nowhere will you find on the website any Ford logos or even a hint of blue.
http://www.teamvodafone.com/
As far as Triple 8 are concerned, it simply means that they'll have to do what Team Dynamics did and simply engineer a car of their own. Let's be honest here, Triple 8 are smart enough to look at the rules and then decide for themselves which car to engineer and race. TD after all built and ran the Integra DC5 which wasn't even sold by Honda in the UK.
Vauxhall's story is a little different to Ford Australia, Vauxhall as well as Opel are in real trouble to survive. However, I found this in today's Grauniad... yes, that's deliberate.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/apr/23/fiat-buyout-opel-vauxhall-general-motors
The Italian car group Fiat could take over General Motors Europe, including UK-based Vauxhall and Germany's Opel, it emerged today. A flurry of media reports suggested that Fiat chief Sergio Marchionne has shown interest in buying GM Europe in talks with German government officials, who said Canada's car-parts supplier Magna is also keen to buy.
How ironic that just four years after FIAT cost General Motors $2 billion to buy and then onsell again, that they're now the ones to "bail them out" as it were.
I wonder where all the bits will fall.
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