LONG-TIME Tickford Racing boss Tim Edwards can sum up his first impression of the team in two words.
“F***ing chaos.”
The year was 2005 and Edwards had returned to Australia from a stint overseas that included 13 years working for the Jordan Formula 1 team.
Tickford – or Ford Perfomrance Racing as it was then known – was entering its third Supercars season.
It was coming off a disastrous 2004 campaign in which superstar Craig Lowndes finished 20th in the championship and had committed to joining fellow fledging squad Triple Eight.
Edwards admitted he’d needed several weeks’ worth of convincing to take the reins at FPR following his first visit to Campbellfield.
“The day I walked in here the first time, they asked (engineer) Phil Keed to show me around,” Edwards said in Part 2 of his V8 Sleuth Podcast polished by Bowden’s Own episode.
“I think it was 10 days out from the AGP (Australian Grand Prix), which was the first race and they were frantically trying to build the first true FPR car, which was FPR 501; Greg Ritter was debuting it at the Grand Prix.
“I walked in here and I saw probably not even half a car, people asleep everywhere because they were literally working all-nighter, all-nighter, all-nighter. It was like, ‘oh my f***ing god, what have I got myself in for?’.
“I walked around the facility itself thinking, ‘this is like a mini-Jordan, they have got a machine shop, they have got composites, they have got a fab shop, they have got an engine department. It looks like all the key ingredients are here but oh my god, how the hell do you find yourself in a situation with this car?’
DID YOU KNOW? Tim Edwards’ Dad competed in the Great Race!
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“It was like, ‘what are we doing for the front crossmember?’ ‘Oh yeah, we haven’t even designed that yet’.
“So literally there was fabbies there just going, ‘weld that bar there’ and welding it in.
“Somehow, they got it to the grid at the Grand Prix.
“I think I actually went to the Grand Prix and just stood and observed. In fact, I think I even went to the first (points-paying) race at Adelaide, which must have been the second race of the season and observed as well before I actually started. But it was just like, ‘wow’.
“But the ingredients were there… in the end, I think it was the fact that Rod Barrett started on the same day as me, so essentially we co-ran the team: Rod looked after the commercial side, I looked after all the motorsport side of the business.
“And that’s the way we were for a couple of years before he took an opportunity in the road car business, FPV (Ford Performance Vehicles).”
Edwards revealed that the terms of signing Jason Bright while the driver was establishing his own Britek Motorsport squad had been the catalyst for FPR’s mad rush pre-AGP.
“The deal that got cut for Brighty to drive here was that they would give Britek two of their existing cars, so they had BA01, 02, 03 – they kept one of them which is what Brighty was driving at the Grand Prix that year, and they gave Britek the other two cars,” he said.
“So they had no option but to build the first true FPR car, so Britek and Brighty was the whole reason… they were so desperate to get him as a driver.”
Among other topics touched on during the episode include Edwards’ respect for long-time Triple Eight foe Roland Dane.
