Ford or Holden in 2002? It's crystal ball time again.
HRT have been top dog for years, first with Craig Lowndes and now the mantle has passed to Mark Skaife, the only Holden drivers to have ever won the V8 Supercar title since its inception in 1993. Winning has become a habit at HRT and they work very hard at staying ahead of the challengers.
Firstly from within the Holden ranks who are the serious contenders?
The top opposition should come from within HRT and team mate Jason Bright. Last year he got handed a mid season handicap of a new car that, mysteriously for HRT, refused to work as well as the old one straight out of the box. Jason needs success to help launch his career to the next level so the panel rubbing with the other HRT car seen at Sandown last year could be repeated.
Kmart Racing's Greg Murphy from the other part of the TWR super team should be strong contenders again this year. The battle between HRT the Kmart team could be more intense than the championship itself as Greg too tries to assert himself.
Perennial runner-up Russel Ingall will be joined at an enlarged Castrol Perkins team by the much travelled Stephen Richards. Despite multiple Bathurst wins the team has failed to win a series championship. Richard presence failed to lift the performance of Glenn Seton's team last year but the Castrol team have been very close. He may diffuse some of the frustration starting to appear within the team.
Two brand new cars for 2001 was not the way to go for the Gary Rogers Motorsport team. For an emerging team it was just too much. I expect them to bounce back in 2002, with Garth Tander looking to go one better than his 2000 runner up result. They made progress with their two new cars towards the end of last year and this should be continued
The pressure is on Ford to step up this year and achieve more race and round wins. Local Ford boss Geoff Polites really needs a good result to boost the companies flagging sales of the AU Falcon. They have supported a large number of teams and focused on attracting quality young drivers. The promise shown last year needs to be realised and converted into race and round wins. One team though needs the consistency to be a serious title contender. These are the Ford drivers I think could do it in 2002.
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