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The Three Year Itch
by Stefan Bartholomaeus
pic: SBR media
The Three Year Itch
The constant rumour flinging that goes on in motorsport, and especially V8 Supercar racing, never ceases to amaze. What was once accurately described as ‘the silly season’ is now a monster that lives at race tracks, in magazines, and on websites, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Many in the paddock are amazed by outlandish rumours that link drivers to teams seemingly at random. No, Will Davison isn’t moving to SBR in 2009, and Al Gore isn’t coming to race a green HRT Commodore with E10 down its flanks...
However, rather than the outlandish ones, what amazes me the most is the amount of driver movement rumours in this sport that turn out to be true.
In a category as competitive as V8 Supercar, the most underrated ingredient needed to win races and championships is team stability. A driver needs to be in the same team with the same key engineering staff for a substantial period of time before the term ‘champion’ will start appearing next to their name.
Whilst competitive pressure and constant expectations for success are dictating a constantly shuffling driver market, I really question the whole rationale behind it sometimes.
When Jamie Whincup wins the title at Oran Park, it will mark the end of three years with Triple 8 for the 25 year old.
Likewise, Garth Tander’s win in last year’s championship was the culmination of a three year program that began in 2005 when he moved from GRM to the HSVDT.
More history suggests that this is far from a coincidence....
Russell Ingall’s championship win in 2005 came at the end of his third year with SBR
Our last back-to-back champion, Marcos Ambrose, won his two titles in his third and fourth years at SBR.
Mark Skaife’s run of titles from 2000-2002 came in his third, fourth and fifth years with the HRT.
Clearly, Craig Lowndes’ record of winning the championship at his first three attempts with the HRT may seem like a massive step away from the ‘three year itch’ trend. However, when you consider his substantial testing and endurance racing role in the team started back in 1994, it’s not much of a stretch to say that his first title in ‘96 should be considered as year three in the program.
The only real oddity from the three year rule in the past decade or so has been Rick Kelly, who won in his fourth year with the K-Mart Racing/HSVDT in 2006. That’s right, it took more than three years for him, not less.
The last time a driver won the ATCC trophy having spent less than three years in their team beforehand was Jim Richards in 1990, having only moved to the Nissan team the year prior. That’s nearly 20 years ago now...
Of course, only one person in the field can be champion in any given year, so a top driver can’t stay in a top team for three seasons and expect a championship to simply fall into his lap. But when you look at the form drivers of 2008, you’re talking about Whincup (3 years at 888), Mark Winterbottom (3 years at FPR), Garth Tander (4 years at Walkinshaw), Craig Lowndes (4 years at 888), Will Davison (3 years at DJR), and James Courtney (3 years at SBR).
They’re the top six in the championship heading into the final round at Oran Park, and none of them are on anything but a first name basis with ‘the boys’ in their current teams.
One then has to wonder whether it is a coincidence that a driver such as Jason Bright has never won a championship. Many believe that he’s as talented as any champion we’ve had, but he left for seemingly greener pastures after two years at SBR, two years at HRT, two years at PWR, two years at FPR, and now after two years at Britek....
Britek aside, if he stayed at any of those teams for a third year, he would have started that season as one of the undisputed favourites for the crown. Had he been playing with an FPR car in 2007 for example, I’m not so sure that Tander would have been doing donuts at Phillip Island last December....
A similar case could probably be made regarding the career of Steven Richards. In the last ten years he’s driven for GRM, SBR, Gibson, Seton, Perkins, and now FPR. Only at Perkins did he really stay around long enough to have a chance at the title.... If he’s going to win one, it’ll really have to be next year (his third year at FPR), because already people are questioning his speed against the latest generation of young stars.
So, whilst the latest hot signings, like Davison to HRT, and Courtney to DJR, may look to be very promising on paper, history says it’s going to be very difficult for either of them to be winning the title before December 2011. That’s a long way away. Imagine how many new ‘driver shuffle’ rumours are going to come true before then...
- Stefan Bartholomaeus
© 321 IGNITION Pty Ltd 2008
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