History
British motor racing organisation Prodrive took over Glenn Seton Racing in 2003, and renamed it Ford Performance Racing as part of a marketing push to link the Prodrive-owned Ford Performance Vehicles road cars to the popular V8 Supercars. Along with this renaming came a huge expansion programme – the team expanded from just one car driven by Glenn Seton to three; Seton, Craig Lowndes and David Besnard. The team moved into a new headquarters in adjacent to the FPV plant in Melbourne, and the crew expanded as well.
The team's early years were somewhat disappointing, given the fact the team was one of the richest in V8 Supercars. Lowndes had his moments in 2003, including a round win at Phillip Island, and a second place finish at Bathurst driving with Seton. Lowndes finished the year 5th in the championship, with Seton and Besnard well down the order.
2004 saw the team downsize to two cars – Besnard forced to leave due to the impracticality of preparing three cars at the same time. Lowndes and Seton both had disappointing years, plagued by engine dramas, a lack of test days, and a lack of comparable data (their cars were built to different specifications). While the pair did start to find some pace at the end of the year (they finished second at Bathurst again), they both decided to move at the end of the year – Lowndes to Triple Eight Race Engineering and Seton to Dick Johnson Racing.
Jason Bright and Greg Ritter replaced them for the 2005 season. Bright had a consistent year, and finished inside the Top-10, while Ritter was disappointing – David Brabham replaced him for the final rounds.
2006 saw FPR become what it always set out to be – the pace setter. Mark Winterbottom joined the team while Bright stayed on. Bright scored multiple front-row starts, including three pole positions. He won the inaugural round in Bahrain, and came 6th in the championship. Winterbottom enjoyed a very consistent run to finish third in the championship. The pair won the Sandown 500 enduro together. FPR came second in the Team's Championship behind the HSV Dealer Team.
Bright left FPR at the end of the 2006 season to drive for his own Britek Motorsport outfit. Steven Richards replaced Jason Bright in 2007, the team continued to take a challenge to the front running teams. The most disappointing moment in 2007 was when Mark Winterbottom went off at Bathurst which made the team loose their closest chance to winning the great race. 2008 would see Mark Winterbottom challenge for the championship however Jamie Whincup managed to finish the championship ahead of Mark Winterbottom while Steven Richards finished 8th.
2009 saw Ford debuting it's new FG Falcon. While Triple Eight already had the speed FPR struggled with only two wins from Mark Winterbottom during the season with Steven Richards finishing a best of 3rd. The team also struggled at Bathurst again with the no. 6 car driven by Winterbottom and Richards caught fire on lap 50 while the second car driven by Dean Canto and Luke Youlden crashed late in the race. Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards finished 5th and 13th in the championship while Jaime Whincup finished 1st in the championship from both HRT commodores of Will Davison and Garth Tander and Craig Lowndes in the second Triple Eight Falcon.
2010 would see Triple Eight move to Holden meaning FPR was the closest chance of the championship in 2010. However this would change at the end of 2010 with James Courtney in the DJR Falcon take the championship from Jaime Whincup and Mark Winterbottom. FPR would have an improved season with Winterbottom scoring pints and in line for the championship, he eventually finished 3rd. Steven Richards announced his retirement from full-time racing and finished 15th in the championship.
2011 would be a new change for FPR with Steven Richards replaced by Will Davison. Mark Winterbottom would win FPR's first win of 2011 at the Gold Coast 600 after Bathurst followed by another win in Sydney. Will Davison would not have a win during the season during 2011 with two second places. FPR showed they had pace at Bathurst in 2011 with Will Davison leading the race before the first pitstops. However FPR's luck ran out after Luke Youlden bunkered the car after the first safety car restart. The no. 5 car of Winterbottom and Richards finished 4th. Mrk Winterbottom and Will Davison finished 3rd and 7th in the championship.
2012 saw FPR as strong challengers for the championship, Mark Winterbottom and Will Davison retained their seats at FPR and were contenders for the championship throughout the season, certainally by the end of round 5 Phillip Island FPR had won 9 of the 11 races leaving them very well placed in the championship at the time. While FPR were looking very strong, an 11 race winning streak was achieved by Triple 888 between Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes during the mid point of the season putting both Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes in the championship contention. Bathurst was the near killer for FPR after the #5 car of Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards finished in 11th and the #6 car of Will Davison and John McIntyre finished 24th. FPR finally won their first race since Phillip Island at the second race of the Gold Coast 600 with Will Davison and Mika Salo however Jamie Whincup won the next 4 races leaving Will Davison out of contention of the championship. Mark Winterbottom would fight for the championship until being out of reach after the second race at Winton in the second last round. Mark Winterbottom then challenged Craig Lowndes for 2nd place in the championship, however with Craig Lowndes finishing 1st and 2nd in both races compared to Winterbottom's 9th and 18th he finished 3rd in the championship with Will Davison finishing 4th in the championship.
Ford Performance Racing had run a number of satellite teams for other franchise holders, the first was for the first couple of rounds of 2007 where they ran the #021 Team Kiwi Racing BF Falcon, in 2008 the team ran the #777 Speed FX Racing BF Falcon and from 2010 the team currently runs the #55 Rod Nash Racing FG Falcon with Paul Dumbrell originally the driver. in 2012 David Reynolds replaced Dumbrell as driver of the #55 Falcon.
Read more about this topic: Ford Performance Racing
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