WAU, Ford's message to fans
Walkinshaw Andretti United and Ford are confident fans will embrace the team’s new era.
It was confirmed Friday that WAU will make a sensational switch to the Blue Oval.
WAU leaves behind over 30 years of history with General Motors, 27 of which were spent as the factory Holden team.
Camaros will replace Commodores in 2023, although WAU won’t race them.
WAU will compete with Ford Mustangs in the first year of the Gen3 era.
Former Walkinshaw drivers Garth Tander and Craig Lowndes have already stressed that the fan base will be divided.
Notably, Lowndes touched on advice from Peter Brock after his own shift from Holden to Ford.
That is a scenario facing Chaz Mostert and Nick Percat, who currently race Commodores for WAU.
"Firstly, we love our fans,” WAU team principal Bruce Stewart said.
"They’re super passionate, they love our team and they’ve enjoyed the successes along the way.
"Holden doesn’t exist anymore at the end of the year, so we’ve set a direction going forwards with Gen3.
"We will be proudly representing Holden to the end of the year.
"We hope our fans can join us. We sympathise with some of the fans.
“We hope most of them can see that we’re still the same team, with the same values.
"We hope and expect to retain a lot of our fans to stay with us.
"If some can’t make that leap we understand and we thank them for their support, but we’re going places."
Ford Australia President and CEO Andrew Birkic explained that Holdens’s departure formed a key part of the fans’ response.
A big day for us and the future of our team. But I think it’s important that first and foremost we explain to our fans why we have made this massive change. To win, it’s critical we become a factory backed team once again. Ford offered us this opportunity. pic.twitter.com/wZiE4hd8xu
— Ryan (@RyanWalkinshaw) May 6, 2022
"There are a lot of passionate Holden fans out there,” Birkic said.
"We understand that and we respect that. That’s what’s great about our sport, we love the rivalry.
"But the landscape has changed, we need to understand that and work with that.
"There is a changing of the guard with Holden and it’s time to move on.”
For Walkinshaw, the ambition is to return the team to the very top with factory support.
However, the immediate focus remains on 2022 and completing the year strongly with the Holden badge on the car.
"For the rest of this year, we’re going to be doing what we what we have to do to look after our fans," Walkinshaw said.
"You’re always going to have a small minority of people that are incredibly vocal, the response has been better than we thought.
"I think the vast majority of our fans follow our team because of who we are.
"They follow our values, they follow our drivers, they follow the way that we go about business.
"They share the same passion for wanting to go and win races."
The 2022 season will resume at Winton on May 21-22. Purchase your tickets now.
