Triple Eight Considers Four Cars

Triple Eight Race Engineering, the dominant force in V8 Supercars racing, could run four cars in the 2014 Championship.

Team owner Roland Dane confirmed the plan was under investigation but was yet to be approved by him or the team’s primary sponsors.

“Whether we run more cars is dependent on a whole lot of things including economic conditions and what Red Bull and Holden say about it as well,” Dane told v8supercars.com.au.

“It is a decision that is still to be made,” he added. “I have to make the decision whether we want to do it and if we do want to do it, then how do we go about it in terms of what RECs (Racing Entitlements Contracts) and so on.

“It’s just whether we think it makes sense for us to do from a business point of view and whether our main sponsors are happy with it or not happy with it. There are all sorts of influences.”

One thing Dane insisted was former MotoGP star Casey Stoner, who is racing for Triple Eight in the Dunlop development series this year, was not being considered for a main game drive as part of an expanded lineup.

"I have never anticipated that at all, we will look at other RECs but not for Casey," Dane said.

The significance of Dane’s decision to investigate a four car operation – adding two cars alongside the all-conquering duo of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes – cannot be underestimated.

It has the potential to dictate the placement of Racing Entitlements Contracts for 2014 and have a knock-on effect for driver signings as well.

Dane has three ways to obtain the additional RECs he needs to expand to four cars – buy them, lease them or have two REC owners place them with him.

RECs underpin each of the 28 cars on the grid and four are currently being considered as being in play for 2014. They are controlled by Dean Fiore (currently used by Dick Johnson Racing, although Fiore races at Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport), Charlie Schwerkolt (Ford Performance Racing), James Rosenberg (Erebus Motorsport V8) and Paul Morris (Tekno Autosports).

There have been various rumours linking those RECs with various new homes.

In Townsville last weekend Schwerkolt was being placed at Tekno with HRT’s out-of-contract James Courtney as the driver. Another rumour had them at Erebus (in place of the purportedly departing Rosenberg). Yet another had Schwerkolt and his REC back at DJR, from where he departed in acrimony in 2010.

Schwerkolt wasn’t commenting on the various scenarios last weekend, Rosenberg continues to insist August is when he will have a better understanding of his REC’s future, Fiore confirmed his REC was the subject of various approaches but denied any discussion with Dane, while Morris has left Tekno owner Steve Webb with first option on his REC.

In his guarded discussions with v8supercars.com.au Dane seemed to favour co-operative owners placing their RECs with him.

“You don’t have to buy a REC,” he said. “You might choose to, but you don’t have to buy one. I am sure plenty of people would be happy to put their RECs in our stable.”

An experienced REC owner such as Rosenberg would appear to be a perfect fit for an expanded Triple Eight, especially as he could potentially bring highly rated driver Tim Slade with him.

Slade, who has a long relationship with Rosenberg, is out of contract at Erebus Motorsport V8 and is being linked with the Supercheap Auto seat at Walkinshaw Racing to replace the retiring Russell Ingall. He is also wanted at Erebus but a factory seat with Triple Eight could prove very tempting.

Dane made it clear that he as only interested in expanding from two to four cars, which is the maximum any entity can run.

“I would never run three,” he said. “There is no point; the three car model doesn’t work. You need the same infrastructure and the only reason for running more cars is to defray the back office costs as it were. As soon as you go to a third car you have got to have another truck and trailer… you might as well go to four.

“And you have got to have a crew, so you might as well have a crew and be a master of your destiny in pitlane and not share a boom with someone else. So the incremental on-cost for running four over three is small. Three over two is big and that’s why I have always wondered why people would possibly on earth want to run three.”