Strange Things can Happen in a Month

What the hell. You leave the country for a month then all of a sudden all hell breaks lose. I come back to learn that Karmichael Hunt is switching codes – to AFL – and that my beloved Triple 8 Race Engineering, better known as Team Vodafone, is doing the unthinkable by switching to Holden.

Both moves will see less success enjoyed by each. AFL is a very different game to Rugby League and regardless of whether he has played before or has the right skills to join the code, there is no way Hunt will be a top player for the new Gold Coast club. He can’t just expect to jump raw into another sport and expect to compete with the professionals that have been sharpening their skills for years. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if he disappeared from the top team quite quickly (if starting there at all). 2011 is a long way away anyway.

Now to my biggest surprise on return to Australia. Triple 8 have gone to Holden. The team I have supported through their rise to what they are now are gone. 1 (morally 2) championships and 3 consecutive Bathurst victories in a Ford and now they are throwing it away. Now, don’t think I’m ripping on Holden here and saying that they are going to fail from now simply because they are apart of the side I don’t support. I just don’t think they can jump straight into a Commodore and be successful straight away – definitely not to the extent of where they are now. In my opinion HRT are being handed next years championship on a platter. Honestly, Triple 8 are not going to be competitive with Holden’s top team straight away.

But gee, don’t Ford have egg on their face currently. They choose not to elect Triple 8 as one of their factory teams and it has caused them to bail out. The teams they did choose have their drivers sitting in 7th, 16th, 17th and 18th spot. Whatever happened to SBR (Stone Brothers Racing)? So successful with drivers like Ambrose and Bright but now they settle for (with all due respect to them) Van Gisbergen, who seems to only come alight when it rains, and Alex Davison, who, lets face it, will never be championship material. There are plenty of better young drivers floating around, SBR need to lift their recruitment game if they are going to step up next year.

So Ford, tell us the fans, who will be stepping up next year? Will this SBR/FPR hybrid engine lift them to the top? Will DJR keep improving and show up the factory teams?

Back to Triple 8. Lets have a think about fans. They are the 2nd most supported team behind HRT at the moment but this is going to change. Yes there are those non-manufacturer based fans that will follow them across. But mostly their fans would be Ford fans, and they will move on. Holden already have a pretty solid supporter base to their various teams and there are also a lot of fans who despise Craig Lowndes for walking out on Holden years back. Especially when they don’t turn up and win, Triple 8’s supporter base will decline significantly.

Maybe this is what the sport needs. To be honest watching Triple 8 dominate has become a bit boring. Perhaps the field will be really evened up for next year. I just hope it doesn’t mean that HRT will dominate.

Perhaps my views are corrupted by a bit of bias, but this is way I see it. Only time will tell.