How 'massive' McPherson coup further fuels manufacturer rivalry

General Motors' signing of decorated engineer Grant McPherson has made waves in the paddock, with Dick Johnson Racing boss Dr Ryan Story describing the coup as "massive."

Confirmed by his current team last week, Penrite Racing Technical Director Grant McPherson will join GM in a yet to be confirmed role.

McPherson is set to oversee GM's Supercars technical program, effectively stepping into the role currently held by United States-based Jeromy Moore, who was last year poached from Triple Eight.

In announcing McPherson's exit, Penrite Racing owner Stephen Grove — whose team races Fords — sent a pointed message to GM, making no secret of GM's loss of Triple Eight to the Blue Oval.

Crucially for GM, success has followed McPherson at every turn. Nicknamed 'Shippy', McPherson has overseen Bathurst wins for Ford Performance Racing (now Tickford Racing), Triple Eight Race Engineering, Walkinshaw Andretti United (now Walkinshaw TWG Racing) and Grove Racing.

The news is a shot in the arm for GM, which has one podium finish from a possible 21 across the first seven races, in Anton De Pasquale's Race 2 win in Sydney.

“He's obviously an excellent operator,” De Pasquale told Supercars.com of McPherson.

“Similar to the JJ [Moore] thing, I don't really know where we fit in with it all, don't really have any information on that, so it's hard to make a comment.

“But obviously it’s a big signing and it's made big news. If he can bring something to improve us or help us, whether that's as soon as he can or a little bit later on the track, we’ll see.

"In the meantime, we have to keep improving ourselves and rely on what we've got in terms of what happens between our own four walls."

While GM is yet to confirm details, McPherson is set to take control of Chevrolet Racing's technical remit, which includes managing the new 'Team Chevy' alliance alongside Simon McNamara. McPherson will first see out a six-month notice period with Grove before joining GM.

The alliance is currently being shared by GM homologation squad Team 18, Matt Stone Racing and PremiAir Racing, while Erebus Motorsport is going it alone.

In addition to the ever improving alliance, PremiAir driver Declan Fraser also hailed the coup, telling Supercars.com: "It's a massive, massive win for GM.

"Obviously we've already got a plethora of very smart individuals in the organisation and within each GM team there's a lot of smart people there that are driving GM force forward. But to have his knowledge come across as well and considering the places where he's been previously, it's a massive win.

"I feel like as a whole, the entire GM outfit now with the new way that we're going about our racing together, we should be able to get the product a little bit better before.

“It's very good. There's so many resources now you can practically see what everyone's doing. It's good that those onboard are very onboard with it. I think the program wouldn't work if there was somebody who wasn't fully onboard."

With Grove frustrated and GM drivers intrigued by the news, camps from Ford and Chevrolet both have fire in the belly, something DJR Executive Chairman Dr Story believes is good for Supercars.

The McPherson news comes as Ford continues to up its involvement in Supercars amid the acquisition of long-time GM spearhead team Triple Eight, alongside the addition of Toyota to the championship.

“Big loss for Grove, Stephen Grove came out swinging,” Dr Story recently told the Lucky Dogs podcast.

“There was a big story last year with Grove and talking about manufacturers coming after drivers with big cheque books. Stephen was not backward with some of his comments in the media… they’ve lost not only Shippy now, but also David Cauchi.

“Stephen talked about their ability to promote from within — we wish them well, we want to kick their arse on track of course — but it’s a big story, a huge story. It’s a big investment, it’s great for the sport — first off, poaching JJ [Moore], that was huge, that was massive.

“They've now got one of the best propeller heads in pit lane who’s going to have a seat at the table representing the bow tie in those manufacturer meetings, and any time that dreaded ‘P’ [parity] word comes up.

“It’s big coup for GM to get someone like Shippy onboard. There’s nothing better for the sport when the manufacturers are invested in it."