JUDE Bargwanna’s Supercars journey will pick up pace this weekend as he debuts in the revived Kumho V8 Touring Car Series at Phillip Island.
Bargwanna, the nephew of 2000 Bathurst 1000 winner Jason, is driving for Anderson Motorsport and has already set his sights on the title.
Beneath him, he’ll have a car with a proven track record: FPR 808.
The Ford FG Falcon has chalked up 199 starts across three tiers of Supercars for a return of 35 race wins and two titles.
Along the way, it has compiled quite the roll call of drivers to have jumped behind the wheel in competition mode.
Built by Ford Performance Racing, the car debuted at the 2009 Sandown main game round with Steven Richards aboard.
It was shared by Dean Canto and Luke Youlden at that season’s enduros before being parked for the final four events.
It then became the team’s Bottle-O Racing car, with Paul Dumbrell driving it in 2010 (including victory at Sandown) and 2011.
In both those seasons, it had an ex-Formula 1 driver make a Gold Coast 600 cameo: Jacques Villeneuve in 2010 and Christian Klien in 2011.
Its final five main game events came in early 2012 with David Reynolds at the wheel.
FPR808’s Dunlop Series tenure began a few months later in Townsville, with Chaz Mostert immediately putting the car on pole position at his first attempt.
The car was sidelined throughout 2013 before returning for a string of Cam Waters wins as he finished Super2 runner-up in ’14 and champion in ’15.
Its winning streak continued the following year as Garry Jacobson took five wins from six starts in the 2016 Kumho Series.
From there, the car headed to Michael Anderson, who drove it himself in seasons 2017-18 before placing stars of the future Jayden Ojeda (2019) and Declan Fraser (2020) in it as V8TC became Super3.
After a year with Anderson back driving, the Bathurst-based team fielded Brad Vaughan last season, with the South Australian clinching the Super3 crown.
All up, its 14 drivers have a mix of crowns on their collective resume: Formula 1, Supercars, Bathurst 1000, Super2 and Super3.
