A quick glance over at the Stone Brothers Racing facebook page gives an insight into some of the least appealing aspects of V8 Supercars. For this author anyway. Here’s a sample of the comments from the Blue oval extremists, reacting to the news Stone Brothers will partner with Erebus Motorsport in Mercedes E Class AMG bodies from 2013:
[LANGUAGE WARNING]
Wayne Williams i hope you fucks cop shit at Bathurst . and i hope FPR and DJR continue on with Ford and seriously embaress you lot next year. and realise there is no room on the Mountain for the fans who support Mercedes or Nissan. this is still our Battle Ground.
Phil Claxton Oh well, might as well unlike now…thats one flag we wont be waving at Bathurst, thanks for the heads up. At least we wont waste any money in your merch shop. Pity your drivers are in the same boat….Boatpeople eh! Bye
Paul Berryman Very disappointed as im sure alot of ford / SBR fans will are. All I can say is….. WHY? . I think V8 supercars should be just Holden and Ford and the other makes should stay in the production class. They had different manufacturers in the 80s with BMW , Volvo, Nissan and VW , where did they all go? I say if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Wayne Williams looks like DJR and FPR have gained some very loyal supporters tonite, after the bullshit that was dealt out to them today. So i guess you are right in that it is all about surviving in business, and from now on the sales of supporter gear at FPR and DJR will skyrocket making there business survive. I hope Betty Klimenko gets greedy and ends up screwing the Stones Bro. over just like the Swarzkoft/DJR fiasco.
Wayne Williams TRUST NO ONE!!!!!
Nickole Prior Loyal supporter for 15 years. Now broken tonight. 🙁
And paul they are losing $$$ as it costs to much to take a family now a days to see a race. The v8s need to stop trying to be like f1.
Tamaoho Charles Lee Christensen-Oketopa I’m a Kiwi, and a STAUNCH FORD FAN… have enjoyed watching our Top Driver and Team do so well… I really hope their is a reason to watch next year…as I will only support FORD…NO EXCEPTIONS…R.I.P SBR…
Tamaoho Charles Lee Christensen-Oketopa All I care about is that lil blue oval, it sucks when your a fan of a driver and team for years, then they switch teams….Death before Dishonour…
John Vogl at least kelly brothers give plenty of notice but you pricks just let hard working people buy your merchendise throwing there money away all year fuckin shit house
Such comments prompted Ross Stone to issue the following statement:
“When we first started in V8 Supercars, 50% of the car market was Ford and Holden. Now, the Australian car market has really taken a dive in the large car segment and we when saw the opportunity to take on a new challenge in V8 Supercar racing, we decided to take it. Hopefully in the coming years we can really take it to FPR and Triple 8, and put SBR in the running to win another championship title.
We’d like to thank all of our supporters for their ongoing backing over the last 15 years. We understand that yesterday’s announcement means many of you may choose to no longer follow SBR but thank you, we really have appreciated your support. For those who do continue to stick with us, the next few years will be one very exciting ride. We look forward to seeing you all on track at Bathurst!â€
And thankfully, there were enough others able to display a sense of reason and common sense to show it wasn’t all about narrow-minded meatheads sharing their opinion:
Karl Hilton Congratulations to Ross and Jim for this next chapter in Stone Brothers successful history. I like many, you will find, support you and the team not the make. Good luck and I cant wait to see the car and hear that engine !!!!!.
Jeff Sadler Well done Ross and Jimmy. Good to see you getting on board with the new era of Australian motorsport with some fresh ideas. Evolution is strong. Look forward to seeing what you can do with a fresh set of ideas and new team direction. I have raced holdens and fords and look forward to getting some new competition in the market. I remember when the current version of V8SC came in and the group A fans got nasty, It’s all part of the passion….
Judy Adams We will stick with the you Ross and Jim and wish you and your awsome team all the very best for your new adventure. We look forward to coming along for the ride. Very proud of our two home grown boys. 🙂
Stewart Arnott I may just start barracking for SBR now 😛 (Sorry guys, no offense but I usually go for the underdog and up until now too many people have liked you guys) – Ruffling a few feathers is what this sport needs… good luck to SBR and EREBUS Motor Sport… Can’t wait to see you guys in action…
Michael Edmonds I don’t give a crap about brands they’re just like sponsors they come and go to me it’s always about drivers and their teams good choice fellas hopefully next year’s championship will have four teams in four different brands fighting for the championship at the last round.
I grew up following the Australian Touring Car Championship in the 1980s. I was as Holden as Holden could be. Like so many others, I idolised Peter Brock. I hated that the ATCC virtually became a one-make Ford Sierra series. Brock in a Ford! BMW was bad enough.
But this helped to open my eyes, to see and accept a much broader side to motorsport and competition. I still loved my Holdens, but loved every second of Nissan GT-R dominance. I was in the crowd beneath the podium the day Jim Richards called the mostly disapproving Ford crowd “a pack of arseholes,” after he and Skaife accepted the winners’ trophy.
In effect, that was the catalyst to kick that Japanese shit out of our racing. For me, that was a turning point and I’ve never really given V8 Supercars and their inward-looking focus much of a second thought, aside from a brief interest in Bathurst once a year.
The reaction to the Stone Brothers decision from what I can only hope is a minority—these people vote after all—shows I made the right decision all those years ago. And proves, to me if noone else, that Jim Richards was right.
Liam
AUSmotive Editor
20 replies on “The feral fallout for Stone Brothers Racing”
Narrow minded meatheads? You’re lucky they don’t seem capable of a denial of service attack haha.
The funny thing is most of these buffoon’s drive around in 20 year old 6 cylinder Falcon’s or their girlfriends Hyundai Excel and who are they going to support once the Falcon is a front wheel drive import. Time to trade in those flannelette shirts for something a little more business like i think.
Nice one, Liam. I used to love the GT-R, Sierra and M3 days. Even the RX-7 days. Like you, I stopped watching after packofarseholes-gate. As a 2nd gen boatperson, I particularly enjoyed the boat people comment. One of Tony’s mates, I guess.
Fuck, How could they do this!?!?!? Now I’ve got a tattoo to get removed. Maybe i can get it turned into a southern cross instead.
Just turn it in to “For Death till My Mum”. Sweet as bro.
They say racing improves the breed. V8 Supercars has been inbreeding for far too long and that’s always going to cause problems! I want to see a return to more production-based racing. V8 Supercars was created to provide cheaper race cars, that certainly hasn’t proved to be the case. Holden could have built a rear-drive Commodore with the RB26DETT, now that would have been something! Group A was great in that different makes with different cars/capacities/tyre widths could race against each other. Hopefully AMG & Nissan can get a greater slice of the taxi market in Australia since an E-Class is exactly that throughout Europe!
I can’t believe the level of hatred and fear displayed by these people on the Stone Brothers Facebook page. What is with the unshakeable loyalty these people display to a multi-national motor company, one of the biggest companies in the world. They must be a marketers wet dream, “buy a Ford, no reason, just buy one okay”. They make hardcore Apple / Microsoft fanboi’s look rational and sane in comparison.
You just have to shake your head at these people and imagine the opportunities they are missing out on in life because they are too stubborn and possess to much anger, hatred, and ignorance to everything, and as a result cannot be receptive to the benefits that change can bring. Maybe they just need to cut back on the cigarettes and energy drinks and take a deep breath tell themselves that “everything will be okay”.
I read today that Tony Cochrane is rumoured to become the new CEO of the NRL. If true, maybe he can reduce the NRL down to a two team competition, and take the pack of arseholes with himself, leaving the rest of us motor racing fans to enjoy motor racing.
I was at sandown. The crapark was full of everything BUT fords. Ford stopped providing much factory support for the non main team years ago.
Amazed dick Johnson hasn’t jumped as well. He’s only it it for the money.
Lol at the correlation between the spelling of the ferals and those continuing to show support for SBR.
I think that tells you all you need to know.
What a pack of arseholes !!!
FK me dead I made the mistake of going to a bathurst race on my own one year. Dear god the other other asia was a guy emptying bins……hahahhaha.
Thank god they’re changing.
I just had to LOL. I work in the automotive industry and the guys at my work are staunch Holden vs Ford supporters. I understand their point of view, but alot of the comments resonate with myself. As my name suggests, I’m also a BMW fan, so like the introduction of other classes.
However, 1 thing I want to point out, NASCAR is full of hicks and trailer park trash, and its never going to change. Perhaps V8 Supercars is Australia’s NASCAR and they should stick with it.
If that is the case, then lets beef up the exposure of the more refined classes, and get a top level single seater category going. This would at least give our youngsters a go in Australia before they dart off to Europe to try and get into F1.
Or if we’re a tintop country, then lets beef up the Production cars more, get them onto Channel 10, make it the support category of Formula 1, keep the bogans contained to Bathurst once a year 😉
Where are all these whining Ford fans as Falcon sales continue to slide??? In their 7 seat Tarago Van or EL Falcon Wagon!!
I have liked SBR for years and will continue to follow them. I think its more about the driver and the team these days, not so much the car.
I follow Mark Webber and his team Red-Bull and if they changed engine supplier, it wouldn’t matter one bit. Same as if he changes teams, I would just follow both.
Whether the “staunch” V8 Holden and Ford fraternity like it or not, this sport is evolving, and the bad news for them is Its Going Forward from 2013!!
Bring It On!!!
I forgot to mention, that I feel at home on this blog. Like minded people 🙂
I’m facepalming at those Facebook comments as much as anybody. But…
Production car racing is dead as a major national or international motorsport. Look at the BTCC and WTCC regs. Those aren’t independently developed factory homologation specials either. The BTCC cars all run the same engine!
V8 Supercars in many ways is a pioneer of cost containment in competitive racing. Estimates say a top level WTCC car by the late 90’s was costing $500000.00 in today’s dollars. Sustainable?
If you put aside your biases as strong as those displayed by the ferals you might find some world class professional teams, some up and coming young drivers and some races as competitive and exciting as any I have seen in my 30+ years of motorsport spectating.
I don’t think the Group A days should be mourned, anybody who believes they were genuinely production-based cars has been sniffing the exhaust fumes a little too much. I don’t want to see a return of the days when driver skill was sidelined completely as it descended into a manufacturers’ arms race to see who could build the best race car and keep a straight face when explaining how it was really a road car. Cheating was rife, look at the ’87 WTCC race at Bathurst where the top two cars were eventually scratched because they weren’t anywhere near the same shape as a real Sierra!
Fast forward to 1991-92 and you have a similar situation of blatant cheating which unfortunately took a couple of years to be dealt with properly in Godzilla – purpose-built GTP race cars which belonged in sports car races and not touring car races. It was running in JGTC at the same time as it was inappropriately running in Group A in Australia for goodness sake!
What shocks me most is that these feral inbred bogans actually know how to use technology and log into facebook to write such tripe. I saw a recent documentary on the garbage that use to go on at the top of the mountain before it was cleaned up (AND RIGHTLY SO !!!). How people like that are allowed to breed is beyond me.
Dave if you think Group A was anything like the current crop of V8 Supercars that have absolutely ZERO in common with current production cars then I think you have been sniffing a little bit too much of the old gas rag. I recommend you go read the Group A regulations of the time. Group A forced manufactures to think out of the box and build amazing touring racers for the road and pushed technology. Nowadays V8 Supercars is boring, slow and it doesn’t matter whether its Ford or Holden under the skin the cars are virtually identical. It’s hilarious when bogans get so obsessed with Holden or Ford, if only they knew the cars were exactly the bloody same.
@RAOB – I have read the Group A rules and I can kind of see that the FIA had good intentions in drawing them up but it all went wrong when they were so naïve as to think the manufacturers would all play nicely. The Group A period of touring car racing was an absolute farce with the rules being broken at least as often than they were followed, to the point that those years make even the 1994 F1 season and the Lance Armstrong era at the Tour de France look like excellent examples of clean sporting conduct.
The best example was the ’87 WTCC season where Ford and BMW had colluded to not protest each others’ rule breaches, which came unstuck when the Australian scrutineers actually checked the cars and found the two top-placed Sierras were nowhere near the production cars they were based on.
There was also the case of the Volvo 240 Turbo, where the FISA scrutineers were unable to find a single Evolution model outside of a race team, let alone the minimum of 500 examples.
The Godzilla years did have one good outcome – that Nissan could field a GT Prototype more suited to the Group C sports-racing class in touring car races exposed the rules for the sham they were and led to their downfall.
As for V8SC being boring and slow, even the most one-eyed anti-V8SC guys like you should be able to read a timesheet and see that the racing is more tightly bunched than ever before and the pace at Bathurst is easily within one second per kilometre of Formula 3 and FIA GT3 cars. They are doing times on the 6.21 km layout which are ten seconds faster than the Group A cars were on the 6.17 km layout with the uninterrupted run to Murray’s Corner.
Yes, I do know that COTF is to be a spec chassis, suspension and transaxle package, but I’m happy with that so long as it allows our top series to remain sustainable (even as sponsorship dollars become scarce with the GFC), the drivers stay safe and the racing remains competitive. I’ll also be happy if the series keeps going strong enough to keep propping up the other categories which share the track at V8SC meetings, such as Formula 3, Carrera Cup and the GT Championship.
You put forward a good case for V8SC Dave, thanks.