ANDRETTI EXPECTS FURTHER INTERNATIONAL INTEREST

Michael Andretti and Ryan Walkinshaw in the teams garage at Bathurst – Photo: LAT

As broken by Auto Action in issue 1719, Andretti Autosport and Walkinshaw Racing have announced an equal partnership of the Clayton operation, which Michael Andretti hopes may see an increased international presence in Supercars racing in the near future.

“It would be nice,” enthused Andretti when quizzed by Auto Action. “I’m sure Chip [Ganassi] is watching this.”

Walkinshaw Racing team boss Ryan Walkinshaw was also confident that Supercars can expect further international interest in the near future.

“How cool would it be if this is the next step towards getting more international brands into this category?” Walkinshaw said.

“It would be fantastic and I hope that happens.”

Andretti Autosport and Zak Brown from United Autosports have bought in to Walkinshaw Racing, following the path carved by Roger Penske.

Michael Andretti and Ryan Walkinshaw signing the new deal to create Walkinshaw Andretti United – Photo: LAT

After Team Penske entered the sport in 2015, Andretti admitted he and many others in America kept an eye on what ‘The Captain’s’ men were doing in Australia while his own operation has been expanding worldwide.

“When Penske announced he was coming down here, we started to watch it,” Andretti said.

“We even put a few feelers out to see if there would be any interest in doing some things and nothing was really happening but there was interest on our side.

“Zak Brown called me and said ‘you need to talk to this guy, Ryan’, I said ‘ok, let’s get a meeting’ so Ryan came to Indy.

“We sat down and within about half an hour, we just hit it off and in two hours we had a deal that we were able to put together because it makes a lot of sense for us and with our brand and what we want to do.”

From next season, Walkinshaw and Andretti will own identical shares in the team with Brown as a minority holder, leaving Andretti Autosport to help with the technical side of the team’s operations.

With Holden’s withdrawal of funding hurting Walkinshaw more than expected this year and Gen2 regulations ready to be implemented, Ryan Walkinshaw says they will be looking to attract a new manufacturer in the future. Andretti Autosport already has an association with Honda in Indycar and Volkswagen in Global Rallycross.

“There will be a renewed focus from myself and Michael to go search for a new manufacturer going forward,” Walkinshaw said.

“It’s one of our key objectives to start searching and putting the feelers out.

“We’ve got some fantastic road car connections on our side of things with a dozen or so manufacturers who we are very close with and Michael’s got the same thing on the racing side in the US with international brands.

“Ideally, together we can go put a big search out to try and find someone and if we don’t get anyone, it won’t be for a lack of trying.”

Jordan Mulach

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