[GTRMagic]

Interesting to read a short interview with Mr Rogers in AA today.... some of the things discussed in the story have me intrigued....

Mr Rogers mentioned in the article that Holden, Repco, Valvoline and Cummins are either in place via contract, or via verbal agreement for season 2006 and beyond... and that the team is looking to extract additional funds from these longtime backers to make the team more competitive.

This is despite persistant noise (from some very unexpected places!) regarding some of these brands appearing on different motor vehicles in season 2006, and a motor manufacturer who is looking to reduce the investment it makes in the upkeep of individual teams except based on performance rather than straight monies....

Anyhoo... the discussion of budgets is usually a grubby subject.. but it is well covered... drivers wanting more money, car speed compromised by a lack of money, lack of "...top scale engineering..." because of a lack of money...

As I understand it, this operation has 3 VY/VZ chassis in its possession. A 2005-build car for Mr McConville (VZ07), Mr McConville's 2004 car (VY05) now in Mr Jones' hands and the 2004 car that Mr Tander used to run (VY06).

There is a pecking order here... VY05 is the first VY the team built, and according to the Great Race book of last year was modified to the same standard of VY06.... while VZ07 is a spanker for this season....

The odd part for me is why a team has 3 chassis, and they are running their newest and their oldest this year.... leaving the new recruit in the team with the older car which has had more miles (and accident damage) than you might expect.

Now if you remember back when Mr Whincup was a GRM driver.. he too got a gig in an unloved VX, while the team leader was presented with not one, but two VYs during the 2003 season....

What I dont understand too well is why there is a better car sitting in the workshop that remains unraced, and the young guy doesnt get to use that.. instead in the old nail.... which seems not to be of a performance standard of his 2004 championship winning AU.

It is not improbable that Mr Jones will be extremely competitive in the same car as the team leader at Sandown and at Bathurst.... but after these events, he will more than likely be invited back into the old nail.... to go back to the rear of the grid to where he is banished in the sprint rounds.

Unless I am very much mistaken, wouldnt it make sense to bring the fresher car out to play, to have 2 cars the same specification to bounce technical improvement possibilities off 2 sources of information.... I mean if the cars run the same Aurora engines, surely running chassis X costs the same to run as chassis Y??

We will see in the enduros the disparity between the cars... when you see Mr SciFleet and Mr Holdsworth in other Supercar chassis likely to go quicker than they ultimately manage in their GRM-supplied car....