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SBR – Bucking the trend, time and time again...
by Stefan Bartholomaeus
One of the great unknowns heading into the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series is the performance of Stone Brothers Racing.
With Alex Davison and Irwin Tools taking over from James Courtney and Jeld-Wen, as well as the addition of a third ‘satellite’ car for Jason Bright, it will be a very different looking SBR that lines up on the grid this March.
Whilst there is much hype surrounding the arrival of Bright (whose car will still be officially entered under the Britek name rather than SBR), there are many in the paddock who’ll be watching Davison’s season with just as much interest.
Older brother of Will Davison, Alex spent last season jetting around Europe and the USA driving GT Porsches, after previously competing in Australian Carrera Cup in ’06 and ’07. Prior to that, he completed a full V8 Supercar Championship season aboard a Perkins prepared Autobarn Commodore. Whilst his results that year were unspectacular, the same could easily have been said of his car.
More recently, we saw glimpses of Alex’s potential in a V8 at Bathurst last year (where he drove alongside Fabian Coulthard), and you can bet that he’s a much better race car driver now than he was in ‘05.
SBR’s decision to sign Davison has been the latest in a line of what you might call ‘left field’ driver selections by the three-time championship winning team. When you look at where the other top teams take their drivers from, SBR really buck the trend.
We’ll start by looking at the ‘Clayton’ teams;
In the last eight seasons, the HRT have only hired two new drivers; Todd Kelly (in ‘03, formerly with K-Mart Racing), and Garth Tander (in ‘08, formerly with the HSVDT).
In the same time period, the HSVDT (nee K-Mart) have hired three new drivers; Rick Kelly (in ’03 from Holden Young Lions), Tander (in ’05 from GRM), and Paul Dumbrell (in ‘08 from PWR).
Evidently, the drivers mentioned above have all been chosen from within the category, and have only been recruited after proving themselves with a less competitive outfit.
But this trend isn’t just unique to the factory Holden squads. When you look across to the blue side of the fence, the story is much the same.
Since their inception in 2003, Ford Performance Racing have hired significantly more drivers overall, but Greg Ritter aside, they’ve all been taken directly from other teams.
The FPR honour role begins with their initial steerers, Craig Lowndes (from 00 Motorsport), Glenn Seton (from Glenn Seton Racing), and David Besnard (from SBR). Ritter and Jason Bright (from PWR) came along in ‘05, before current pilots Winterbottom (in ‘06 from Larkham) and Steven Richards (in ‘07 from Perkins) joined.
Reigning champions Triple 8 have a similar record. Since their first full season of operation in 2004, the Queensland based squad have signed Max Wilson (in ‘04 from DJR), Lowndes (in ‘05 from FPR), Steven Ellery (in ‘05 from Ellery’s own team), and finally Jamie Whincup (in ‘06 from Tasman).
Cumulatively, that’s fifteen out of sixteen signings that have come from within the category.
So it’s somewhat surprising that the Stone Brothers, the only other truly successful team in the last half-dozen years, have displayed an entirely different philosophy with regards to selecting drivers.
After ex-British Touring Car pilot Craig Baird had come and gone, SBR introduced V8 Supercars to Marcos Ambrose (who’d been driving Formula Fords in the UK), and David Besnard (who’d been driving Formula Ford, Formula Atlantic, and then Grand Am; all in the USA) in 2001. In ‘03 the Stones took the more conventional route of taking Russell Ingall from within the V8 fold (Perkins), before going abroad again to find James Courtney in ‘06 (from Japan where he’d been racing F3 and GT). Furthermore, 2008 driver Shane van Gisbergen signed with the Stone brothers during 2007 after finishing second in the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand the previous summer.
Whilst Davison remains an unknown, few would criticise Ross and Jim Stone’s talent-spotting ability thus far. The most notable disappointment has been Courtney; whose failure to win a single round in three seasons is a stat that even a Royal Commission would struggle to make sense of.
Looking once again to 2009, SBR sit in an interesting position.
There were times last season (in the wet in particular) where van Gisbergen was super-fast, and his second full season should really give him the chance to shine.
The key though will be whether the van Gisbergen / Alex Davison combination can develop the new FG quickly enough. With ‘the Giz’ lacking experience, and Davison having raced Porsches for eight of the last nine years, the technical knowledge of Jason Bright will be invaluable to them. Unfortunately though the Britek driver will be starting the year in an older BF model, which is hardly ideal.
One thing’s for sure, the Stones will want to be beating 888 as often as possible in ’09, as those who criticised Ford’s decision to financially support SBR over the all-conquering Triple 8 outfit may prove to be rather vocal as the season wears on...
- Stefan Bartholomaeus
© 321 IGNITION Pty Ltd 2008
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