NOVEMBER 15, 2004

Ford-bashing gets to Australia

The Ford Motor Company has been receiving considerable criticism in the media since the announcement that it is walking away from Formula 1. The big cheeses in Dearborn do not seem to care because it is only the specialist press and they do not believe that this has any ultimate effect in the real world outside racing.

However for the meagre few who read the specialist press, Ford's discomfort has been the source of some entertainment and the idea caught on in Australia over the weekend where Ford Australia's chieftans were red-faced after the most recent round of the V8 Supercar series at Symmons Plains in Tasmania where the Wright Patton Shakespeare V8 team set out to embarrass Ford. The team is run by outspoken property developer Craig Gore and he is so frustrated at not being given backing by Ford Australia that he sent his two Ford Falcons out during the Sunday morning warm-up session with stickers on the windscreens reading "No Money From Ford". The two drivers David Besnard and Owen Kelly returned to the pits after just a lap and the messages were removed.