ROLAND DANE: “WE DON’T WANT TO LOOK LIKE A SECONDHAND CAR YARD”

Roland Dane and Roger Penske – Photo: Ross Gibb

SUPERCARS MOST influential team owners Roland Dane and Roger Penske are on differing sides of the need to see a new Ford in the pitlane in 2019.

While Dane is calling for a new Ford Supercars to take on the Commodores, Roger Penske says he is comfortable running Falcons as long as the FG X racer remains competitive.

“We don’t want to look like a secondhand car yard,” Dane says.

“If we’ve got cars that are not available anymore, with shapes that belong to a bygone era, you can only do that for a limited time. I don’t think that’s in anyone’s interest, and I don’t think there is any need to do it.”

While Penske would prefer to race a contemporary shape Ford, he told Auto Action at the Adelaide 500 that it was not his team’s biggest priority.

“I guess I really don’t think of that as a top-of-mind problem, to be honest with you,” he said. “You’d like to be relevant. I think V8s out here in this part of the world, people love ’em and we have one that’s competitive.

“We’re going to race it until we can make another step forward with the same manufacturer or someone else.”

Penske maintained that continuing with the Falcon wasn’t a commercial disadvantage for the Shell V-Power Racing Team.

“It’s not a problem because as you look out there in Australia, the Ford versus Holden rivalry has always been a big thing,” he said. “So if it has a Ford badge on it, it’s still relevant to the fans, but maybe not relevant to the [car] market.”

For more on Dane’s views, see pages 20-23 of issue 1731 of Auto Action, on sale now.

So what would you like to see Ford race? The Falcon or Mondeo? Have your say with our poll.

By PAUL GOVER and MARK FOGARTY

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