Britek confirms two-car push despite snub.

Britek Motorsport has confirmed that it intends to field two Ford Falcon FGs in the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series, despite the announcement that the Ford Motor Company will not support the team with direct cash funding in 2009.

Ford Australia revealed yesterday [Thursday] that, although it would continue to offer 'significant investment in V8 Supercar racing as part of the company's diversified sponsorship portfolio', it would be more carefully targeting which operations it backs.

"Ford's involvement in V8 Supercars will remain the company's single largest sponsorship and category investment however, moving forward, the company will target enhanced return on its motorsport investment through leveraging activities more closely linked to its performance car line-up," an official statement claimed, "Ford Australia will target its direct motorsport sponsorship towards two successful race teams which provide a high level of leveraging opportunities and are integral to the performance success of the Ford brand."

Those two teams will be Ford Performance Racing and Stone Brothers Racing, which will both benefit from ongoing sponsorship support from Ford Australia, while other currently sponsored Ford teams will continue to be supported through the transition to racing the FG Falcon with the provision of initial FG race car shells, a crash panel programme and ongoing engineering and technical support.

"Our programme with Ford was discussed and locked away last December and yesterday's announcement provided no real surprises to us," Britek MD Jason Bright revealed, "These announcements do not affect our planning for 2009 in any way.

"Britek Motorsport will be fielding two FG Falcons in the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship and look forward to an ongoing partnership with Ford for the rest of 2008 and 2009."