The Enforcer Returns

Ford’s new boy Russel Ingall (the “Enforcer”) recaptured his old form in the V8 Supercar races supporting the Formula One round at Melbourne’s Albert Park.

In Friday’s race, it was vintage Enforcer as Russel insisted on his line into the first corner. Holden runners Todd Kelly and Garth Tander came off second best in the argument, triggering a melee that took out several other runners.

When the race settled down former HRT teammates Bright and Skaife were fighting for the lead. Then the pressure got too much for Skaife and his rear tyres and he disappeared off the track backwards deep into the kitty litter. This was an important physiological victory for Jason and the reformed Team Brock.

Behind them in the other battle of former team mates Ingall applied the blowtorch to the back of Steven Richards in the Castrol Perkins Commodore. It worked as Richards ran wide allowing Ingall to take his new Havoline Falcon into second place.

This gave Ingall a front row starting position for race two and he didn’t waste the opportunity as he lead into turn one. Then Russel revealed the potential of the new Stone Brothers BA Falcon by winning race two comfortably.

In the difficult conditions on a rainy Sunday morning Ingall once again made a great start from pole position and lead comfortable until the red flag stopped the race. Even though it was short of the required distance to be an official race it was still a impressive performance by Ford’s latest hero.

Jason Bargwanna made the move from Holden to join Larkham motorsport and run a second car for this expanding team. They chose to run the older AU Falcons as the team is copes with stepping up to racing two cars and building new BA models at the same time. The fifth and fourth place finishes were a welcome return to the front of the field for Bargwanna and the Larkham team.

Holden’s financial crisis overshadowed the on track action. The collapse of Tom Walkinsaw Racing forced Holden to buy out TWR’s stake in their Australian operation. This left the factory directly owning three racing teams in, something not allowed by the series rules.

They raced under a dispensation from the Touring car Entrants Group of Australia (TEGA), the governing body of the V8 Supercar series. The TWR teams dominated the series in recent years. The last non-TWR champion was Glenn Seton way back in 1997. The challenge for Holden is to find buyers for the teams who can satisfy TEGA that they are independent of Holden and manage to retain the personnel that have made these teams so successful.

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