This was published 7 years ago
V8 Supercars: Brain drain threatens to derail Triple Eight Holden's bid for historic clean sweep
By Mark Fogarty
V8 supersquad Triple Eight Holden is losing two key personnel as it bids for a historic cleansweep of the Supercars championship.
In a major "brain drain", the team's technical and commercial masterminds have been sidelined following their decisions to leave at the end of the year.
They are quitting just as Triple Eight is poised to become the first V8 team to finish 1-2-3 in the Supercars driver's championship.
But that could be jeopardised by technical director Ludo Lacroix's impending defection to rival American-owned Ford outfit DJR Team Penske, which was revealed in the lead-up to this weekend's Auckland SuperSprint at Pukekohe Park Raceway in New Zealand.
Lacroix, who has designed a succession of title-winning Fords and Holdens for Triple Eight, has been put on "gardening leave" by the team following the revelation.
He was due to be at Pukekohe to direct V8 veteran Craig Lowndes' championship challenge, but has been stood down for the rest of the season.
French-born Lacroix took over as Lowndes' trackside race engineer this year and has guided him to third in the Supercars championship standings behind teammates Jamie Whincup and title leader Shane van Gisbergen.
While van Gisbergen – who joined the expanded three-car Triple Eight line-up this year – and six-time V8 champion Whincup are set for a title shootout at the season-ending December 3-4 Sydney 500 at the Sydney Olympic Park street circuit, Lowndes' position is vulnerable.
He is just 66 points ahead of Volvo's Scott McLaughlin and 192 clear of Bathurst 1000 winner Will Davison, the only other drivers still in mathematic contention for the title with six races offering a maximum of 600 points to go.
It remains to be seen whether Lacroix's absence will destabilise Lowndes, who is traditionally strong on the fast 2.91 km Pukekohe layout, or if he'll switch seamlessly to working with long-time Triple Eight engineer John McGregor, who has assisted this season.
Lacroix's decision to leave Triple Eight after 17 years with team owner Roland Dane in the UK and Australia followed the resignation of the team's head of commercial operations Peter Jamieson in September.
Jamieson, formerly general manager of marketing at Geelong Football Club, joined Triple Eight in 2004 and brokered the team's multi-year, multimillion-dollar sponsorship deals with Vodafone and current major backers Red Bull and Caltex.
He also organised the many other subsidiary sponsorships with major brands that have maintained the team as by far the best funded in Supercars for the past decade.
Jamieson, who has not been to a race with the team since the Sandown 500 in mid-September, is understood to have decided to leave with no fixed plans for the future.
He is working out his time in the background and his departure won't immediately have an impact because the Red Bull and Caltex deals are signed until the end of 2018.
But Lacroix's move to DJR Team Penske is a major blow, especially as it appears to have blindsided Dane.
On Tuesday, the team announced that Lacroix was leaving next month, to be partially replaced by former Formula 1 engineer Sam Michael, but that he would continue as Lowndes' race engineer at Pukekohe and Sydney Olympic Park.
But once word got out that he'd been poached by DJR Team Penske, he was relieved of his duties and benched for the remainder of the season.
Although his move hasn't been officially confirmed, the quick turnaround of Triple Eight's position by grounding him makes it clear his defection is happening.
Anglo-Irishman Dane, who gained Australian citizenship in late August, would have been unhappy about DJR Team Penske poaching his technical genius because it looms as Triple Eight's main threat in the future.
Lacroix's appointment is another sign that DJRTP, formed in late 2014 when legendary American race team owner Roger Penske bought control of Ford folk hero Dick Johnson's cash-strapped squad, is ramping up for a major assault on the Supercars title from next year.
Rising Supercars star Scott McLaughlin is moving from Volvo to partner fellow Kiwi Fabian Coulthard in a pair of Falcons with big-money backing from Shell, while further major signings to bolster the team's racing staff are also expected.
Lacroix's departure will also be a setback for Triple Eight because he was to design the all-new Commodore Supercars racer due in 2018, which the team is developing for Holden.
Mark Fogarty is at the event courtesy of Supercars.