[MR.HRT]

Holden Racing Team Driver Line-up For 2008
Friday, 7 December 2007

The Holden Racing Team (HRT) has announced significant additions to its racing operation and driver line-ups for 2008 to further strengthen its performance.

The reigning V8 Supercar Champion, Garth Tander, will join HRT, while Rob Crawford becomes Team Manager. In addition, Mathew Nilsson will join the team to engineer Garth Tander s car.

These appointments are effective from today (Dec 7).

Tander said he was delighted to be joining the Holden Racing Team and was looking forward to driving with Mark Skaife in 2008.

“Having driven with HRT at Sandown and Bathurst last year I know how professional an outfit they are. Hopefully Mark and I can push each other to greater heights next year,” he said.

“It will also be great to have Rob Crawford as Team Manager and Mathew Nilsson as my car engineer, given the success we have had.

“I’ll certainly miss the guys who helped me win the championship at the Dealer Team and of course, Rick Kelly, who has been so consistently strong on the track over the last two years.”

Mark Skaife welcomed the announcement that Tander would join HRT.

“Garth’s a great driver and showed what he is capable of achieving on the track this year,” Skaife said.

“I personally can’t wait to get back on the track early next year knowing the Holden Racing Team line-up on the track and off it is going to be stronger than ever.”

New HRT Team Manager Rob Crawford has spent eight years managing Clayton based V8 Supercar teams including the Holden Young Lions, Kmart Racing, the HSV Dealer Team and latterly the Toll HSV Dealer Team, where he oversaw back-to-back Team and Driver Championship results in 2006 and 2007.

He was also involved with HRT in the 1990s.

“I am thrilled with the opportunity to manage the Holden Racing Team,” Crawford said.

Current HRT Team Manager Rob Starr will assume an important role within Walkinshaw Racing in 2008, to be announced in due course.

[BLOWN-VT]

Thats top news and T kelly is going too. I just cant think wear now

[MR.HRT]

BLOWN-VT, on Dec 7 2007, 01:13 PM, said:

Thats top news and T kelly is going too. I just cant think wear now

todd to jdr and this....

Dumbrell Confirmed For Toll HSV
Friday, 7 December 2007

Former V8 Supercar Development Series Champion Paul Dumbrell will join the championship-winning Toll HSV Dealer Team alongside Rick Kelly next season.

Dumbrell, 25, replaces newly-crowned champion Garth Tander who shifts to the Holden Racing Team after three successful years with Toll HSV.

The team also announced that current team Team Engineer, Erik Pender, had been promoted to Team Manager, replacing Rob Crawford who is also transferring to HRT as Team Manager.

Erik’s current role as Rick Kelly’s engineer will be filled by Alistair McVean, from Walkinshaw Performance.

As well, the team has signed an agreement with dual World Touring Cup winner Paul Radisich to return to the team for the 2008 enduros, while also playing a support role throughout the season.

In making the announcements, Team Owners John and Margaret Kelly praised the contributions of Tander and Crawford, saying they had been instrumental in the team’s back-to-back championship successes.

“Garth slotted straight into the team when he arrived three years ago, and formed a formidable combination with Rick (Kelly) and the engineers and crew,” John Kelly said.

“Now that he has ticked the box of the Drivers Championship, we understand why he now wants to take this new opportunity. He goes with our best wishes.”

Kelly also praised the efforts of Crawford, who oversaw the growth of the team from the fledgling Holden Young Lions into Kmart Racing and finally, HSV Dealer Team.

“Rob built the team virtually from scratch, taking it from an off-shoot of the Holden Racing Team into the best team in pit lane,” he said.

“Erik has been his understudy for many years, and we are confident he will have no trouble making the transition.”

Dumbrell, who became the youngest ever driver to race V8 Supercars at the age of 16 years, 11 months and 24 days in 1999, joins Toll HSV from Supercheap Auto Racing.

The Melbourne driver cut his teeth in Formula Holden, where he spent two seasons (1999-2000), before moving to the V8 Development Series in 2001.

He finished a narrow second place in the series to Simon Wills in his first season before taking out the title in his second year.

That same year, he was signed to drive alongside Larry Perkins in the endurance races, coming seventh in the Queensland 500 and fifth at Bathurst.

He raced full-time with Perkins’ race team from 2003 to 2006, again coming fifth at Bathurst in his final year there.

In 2007 he joined Supercheap Auto Racing alongside Cameron McConville, but started looking for a new driving seat with the announcement that SCAR would close at the end of 2007.

He says he is thrilled to have landed a drive with the championship-winning team.

“This team has proved over the past two years that it is second to none, winning both the Drivers and Teams Championships back to back,” he said. “It is the opportunity I have been waiting for, and I didn’t have to think twice about it.”

Newly appointed Team Manager Erik Pender joined the team in 1999 after successful stints in Formula 2 and Formula Holden with drivers such as Arthur Abrahams and Mark Noske.

Queensland-raised Pender was a technician and data engineer in the Young Lions days before going on to become Team Engineer on Greg Murphy’s Kmart Commodore in a successful partnership that delivered many race successes, including back-to-back Bathurst wins with Murphy and Rick Kelly in 2003-4.

Pender has engineered Rick Kelly’s Commodore over the past three years in a stint that netted the 2006 Drivers Championship.

Kiwi international Paul Radisich, who has agreed to return to the team for the enduros, drove with Kelly to second place in the Sandown 500 this year.

The team looks forward to welcoming him back to again bolster the driving ranks while also playing a support role throughout the season.

[vx350int]

Must be the only way Skaife thinks he can beat Lowndes and Co at Bathurst.......

[Bigbird]

because skaifes never beaten Lowndes at Bathurst?

[MAD]

Dumbrell

personally i would have liked to see Murphy in toll, but that was never ever going to happen.

[MR.HRT]

MAD, on Dec 9 2007, 08:08 PM, said:

Dumbrell

it will be make or break for him at toll I reckon. He didn't do too bad a Jack Daniels and you can't really count Supercheap because they had ALOT of reliability issues but now there are no excuses for him. good car, good team, if he doesn't perform now he never will.

Shows Murphy got out at the right time from Supercheap though hey?

This post has been edited by Mark: 09 December 2007 - 08:28 PM

[MR.HRT]

rumour has it that Toll may be following Tander to HRT as well........

[PWR 051]

Quote

Shows Murphy got out at the right time from Supercheap though hey?

Dont you mean PWR? Because they shut shop and supercheap went to paul morris's outfit with Ingall