Snapshot
- Walkinshaw and Holden to end racing partnership after 35 years
- Former Holden Racing Team will race Fords from 2023
- Tom Walkinshaw had previously won for Ford and Jaguar internationally
Today’s announcement of Walkinshaw Andretti United defecting to Ford bring to an end a relationship with Holden which stretches back to 1988.
Between 1990 and the time of writing, Walkinshaw through its various stints as the factory-backed Holden Racing Team and now Walkinshaw Andretti United (WAU), has won the Bathurst 1000 eight times. In addition, it has taken six Australian Touring Car Championship/Supercars drivers’ titles, all of which came with the Lion and Stone on the front of the car.
All of that will change in 2023 as the team adopts Ford’s Mustang to take on the Supercars Championship, marking the first time the team has raced anything other than a Holden in Australia since 1985 (having not participated locally in ’86 or ’87), although it’s not the first time Walkinshaw has run Fords.
Tom Walkinshaw as a Ford driver in 1974
Way back in 1974 when Tom Walkinshaw was a driver and still a handful of years away from starting his own team, the young Scot was a factory Ford driver in the British Saloon Car Championship (now BTCC), racing a Capri to a class championship in the series.
Walkinshaw repeated the feat in 1979 as an owner-driver aboard a Mazda RX-7, delivering Tom Walkinshaw Racing its first championship. After hiring Win Percy as a driver, the team won two more titles in 1980 and 1981 before moving over to Rover, with Andy Rouse taking the 1984 crown in an SD1 Vitesse.
The team’s first visit to Australia came in 1984 when Walkinshaw joined John Goss in a Jaguar XJS for that year’s Bathurst 1000. Despite stalling and being collected on the starting line, the bug had bitten the Scotsman, who was bouyed by TWR taking a class win in the Vitesse.
Returning the next year for the first outing of Group A touring cars at Mount Panorama, Walkinshaw took pole for the Great Race with his two Jags taking first and third on the podium, led by Goss and Armin Hahne.
This started a successful period for TWR and Jaguar overseas in which the partnership netted a World Sportscar Championship and Daytona 24 Hour victory in 1988 as well as two wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1988 and 1990).
It was around this time where Walkinshaw was getting into the Australian scene, having agreed to run Holden’s factory entries in the ATCC and Bathurst from 1988, although Perkins Engineering was contracted to build the cars in 1988 and 1989.
‘Silk Cut’ XJR9 took TWR and Jaguar’s Le Mans win in 1988
While TWR built its image as the Holden Racing Team in Australia from 1990, Tom Walkinshaw continued to expand his empire globally, leading to two more Le Mans victories in 1996 and 1997.
Taking majority ownership of the Arrows Formula One team in 1996, TWR had started its downfall on the international stage, with sponsorship issues and the F1 team entering liquidation leading to Walkinshaw’s outfit to do the same in 2002.
Bailed out in Australia by five-time Supercars champion Mark Skaife and Holden itself, the Holden Racing Team, and later Walkinshaw brand, was able to re-establish itself locally through Holden Special Vehicles – though its association with Holden officially ended at the end of 2016 when the racing team lost factory backing.
Having stuck it out until 2022, it’s understood Walkinshaw had numerous discussions with various manufacturers about entering Supercars before announcing its partnership with Ford, becoming the fifth team to run the Mustang next year.
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Keyword: Walkinshaw's history outside of Holden and GM explored