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Front Page
New Driver - New Team - New Alliance
Staff, Thursday January 4, 2001.
Page 1 of 1
A closely guarded secret can finally be revealed – the answer to the 64,000 dollar question of the 2000 season – where will Craig Lowndes drive in 2001?
Many of the pundits have had Craig going to Ford and, despite a last-minute flurry of rumours concerning the setting up of a new team by Peter Brock, the early backers of the Ford move have now been proved right.
The big part of the whole equation, the question of just which Ford team he might drive for has been an even bigger question.
Today Ford Australia announced not only that they had signed Lowndes as a Ford contracted driver for the next five years, but that they had also signed a deal with one of Australia’s top team managers, Fred Gibson.
Late last year Gibson bought his team and his level one franchise back from Garry Dumbrell.
The surprise announcement of the day is that Fred has signed a deal with Ford to run Lowndes in a Falcon. Fred has elected to return to his Ford roots, and his Commodores are on the market.
Craig will open the season for the new Gibson Motorsport team at the Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix in March.
Speaking at today’s media conference, Ford Australia President said “I am extremely excited about this opportunity to bring together the tremendous skill of such a talented young driver as Craig with the undeniable expertise of one of Australia’s greatest team managers, Fred Gibson. It should be a dynamic combination.
“This new team is another key step in Ford Australia’s increased commitment to, and involvement in, what I consider to be arguably the most competitive form of motorsport in the world – the Shell V8 Supercar series. It also gives us at least 6 extremely competitive young drivers in their twenties – continuing our focus on youth.
“Craig Lowndes is undeniably a very impressive young man. He’s immensely talented and tremendously popular and we consider it a great coup to have him working with us from 2001 onwards.
“Our existing support of the other Ford teams is unaffected by this new arrangement. There is a new air of excitement and competitive spirit evident in many of them as well, with new driver line-ups and some very exciting prospects for an intensely competitive year.”
Gibson Motorsport will field one car for the 2001 season, and will work towards introducing a second car to the team for 2002 and beyond.
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