It’s a good time to be an Eels and Holden fan, writes controversial columnist Dave Moyso.
Well, the Eels are running hot with 5 wins in a row and they certainly showed on Saturday that they are a lot more than just the Jarryd Hayne show with fantastic games from just about everyone. Burt, Mortimer, Reddy, Moimoi and of course the untouchable, unfathomable, unbelievable, uncompromising Jarryd Hayne. Tigers look out…
And since my last article I’ve been overseas and plenty has been happening with the confirmation and formal announcement that Triple8 the most successful V8Supercar team in recent years has signed a multi year – multi million dollar contract with Holden. And if that in itself isn’t news enough, this little arrangement also heralds the return to Holden of not only the categories hottest driver in Jamie Whincup but the sports most popular personality Craig Lowndes…
Now I’ve been critical of Lowndes in the past (on many, many occasions) but as I’m not only an unabashed Holden fan but also clearly a shallow and hypocritical man I welcome Craig home with open arms. Therefore all is forgiven and the 8 years of pain and suffering you have caused and put Holden fans through is forgotten. Welcome home Craig.
There has been plenty in the media and on forums about how this all came about and the consensus seems to be firstly, a fare degree of anger at Ford closely followed by a far greater degree of anger at Roland Dane, Whincup and Lowndes. It seems the narrow minded Ford fans have to blame someone and for many pointing the finger at their precious blue oval is simply never going to happen. So they take the easy option and blame Dane and his drivers. Despite the fact that the drivers are bound to a multi year contract with the team and therefore have a very restricted choice of either breaking their contract and walking away from the team (expensive and potentially career ending) or going where the team goes and driving what they are told to (which is wisely what Jamie and Craig have chosen to do in this case).
But logic and maturity are unfortunately not strong traits for most Ford fans (neither is bathing and oral hygiene from the one’s I’ve met). So they grab their clubs and look for the easiest option which is to vilify Dane and his drivers.
Meanwhile the suit and tie boys over at Broadmeadows whom I imagine bump into chairs and water coolers whilst walking down the hallways get away almost Scot free with what many in and around the industry think is the dumbest racing strategy since CAMS thought thousands of V8 Ford and Holden fans would warm to Nissans and Volvo’s…
Ford’s local big boss Marin Burela wrote to Ford employees explaining his companies eye watering decision. In essence what he told them was that he had just let the most successful V8 team in recent years along with the sport’s most popular driver walk away and team up with Holden because, wait for it – Triple8 wouldn’t paint their cars blue? Pardon me? nope that is correct, Marin was very clear that Ford wouldn’t support a team that had cars in different colours. Apparently Marin’s never taken a walk through his own corporate car park and seen the red, white, silver, green, orange, and yellow Falcons that his company apparently also produces. So that leads me to believe that Marin either thinks Ford consumers are stupid or colour blind. I’m sure there’s plenty of both, but probably a few who at least know people who could tell them that those silver and red cars with ‘Vodafone’ all over them racing around are in fact Falcons.
So Ford’s strategy is to support just 2 teams and they are Ford Performance Racing (their drivers are currently 7th and 17th in the championship) and Stone Brothers Racing (their drivers are currently 16th and 18th in the championship). But their cars are blue and it seems that this is the key to Ford giving you money, it’s clearly not about actually winning races for them looking at both teams results, but hey, good luck to them.
Meanwhile I’ll get my ‘Lowndes is GOD’ jacket out from inside the dog kennel and dust it off ready for his triumphant return to HOLDEN in 2010.
Welcome home Craig, Brocky would be proud…