Paul Morris – revitalised, refreshed and raring to go
February 6th 2008 02:15
The off season has been a busy time for Paul Morris and his V8 Supercar team, formally known as Paul Morris Motorsport and now called Supercheap Auto Racing, with massive changes made to just about every facet of the squad.
With the new naming rights sponsor on board, Queensland based Paul Morris has completed the transition which started when he managed to sign veteran driver and 2005 series champion, Russell Ingall, luring him back to Holden after spending five years with Ford.
Numerous other changes, including sending one of their car chassis to America for wind tunnel testing as part of a $200,000 research and development program, has resulted in a competitive and cohesive new look team, two new cars, high level technical data and two experienced and enthusiastic drivers, ready to take on the challenges of the 2008 championship series.
Russell Ingall has been impressed by Morris’ commitment to the new team, including the signing of a new engineer for Ingall’s car, James Small, who has come across from the successful Garry Rogers Motorsport Team. “All the people involved have been carefully selected not only on their ability, but on their ability to gel well with others because that’s a major factor,” he said. “It was definitely a careful selection and I’d say it’s one of the best-assembled crew of any V8 Supercar team.
“To be honest, that’s the backbone of the whole thing. Without good people behind the scenes, you’re just not going to win so that was the number one priority.
”Everything else flows on from there. Yes, it’s important to build a good race car, but you can’t do that unless you have good people.”
Ingall has been given a free rein by Morris, the opportunity to turn his horse’s head in whichever direction he wishes it to go. “I wanted Russell to be around as much as he can, and in the past month he’s probably been in the workshop more than I have, which is great,” he said. “He’s rolled up his sleeves and gone in there and is helping everyone as much as he can. I have given him free rein to do what he wants with his car, and how he wants to do it.
“He’s not just a steering wheel attendant at our place; he’s part of the whole operation. It’s been good for me to have someone I can rely on to do that stuff as well. Right down to the livery, Russell’s been involved in that as well.
“He has the results and we’re expecting him to perform, but we have to make sure we have good enough cars to do it, and he’s part of that process as well. There’s no one to blame except ourselves if it doesn’t go the way we want it to.”
Speaking of the $200,000 expenditure which saw Ingall’s #39 Commodore sent to the US for intensive suspension setup testing on a seven-post shaker rig in Hendersonville and 20 hours in a wind tunnel, Morris is positive it was money well spent.
“It was hugely beneficial, a lot more value than what you can learn by just driving a car around at a test track,” Morris said. “There are a few small things that we’ll get gains from straight away. We’ve looked at what we’ve got now and how we can make it better, and now we’ve got to go away and make the parts to make the improvements.
“At the moment it’s all-hands-on-deck just trying to get the two cars finished in time for the test day and the first race. Those first three race meetings are really close together so to make any new stuff for the cars, you probably won’t see that until the fourth round.”
Ingall was also confident about the ability of his car and the involvement of new sponsor, Supercheap Auto. “The cars are coming along extremely well, they’ve got some very innovative ideas under the skin that hopefully will give them a bit of an edge over the competitors,” he said.
“The engine development program is going well, that’s stepped up another level, all the data picked up from the US has been analysed by the new engineers and they’re very happy with what’s been achieved over there. So far so good, everything’s been working extremely well. The short timeline to the first meeting (Clipsal 500) is probably the only negative, but that’s out of our hands.
“Saying that, we’re fairly confident that by the time we head there, we’ll get the test out of the way which will tell us a lot and we’ll be pretty much on the money by the time we get to Adelaide. It’s a big learning curve.”
Ingall is hoping that his fans will take to his move from the blue oval as readily and enthusiastically as he himself has after an initial luke-warm reception to the news. “Now, all of a sudden, they’re hearing about the stuff that’s going on and the effort that’s going on behind the scenes, and all of a sudden the feedback we’re getting is that we could be a bit of a surprise package this year,” he said.
“We’ve gone public with what we’re doing, not because we care what other teams think, but because we do care what our fans and potential fans think,” he said. “This is a serious effort, and I think a lot of people are suddenly thinking ‘these guys could be the dark horses in this year’s championship’ and it’s a nice position to be in.”
All the best and welcome back, Russell.
Images courtesy of the official Paul Morris website
With the new naming rights sponsor on board, Queensland based Paul Morris has completed the transition which started when he managed to sign veteran driver and 2005 series champion, Russell Ingall, luring him back to Holden after spending five years with Ford.
Ingall's 2008 #39 Commodore
Numerous other changes, including sending one of their car chassis to America for wind tunnel testing as part of a $200,000 research and development program, has resulted in a competitive and cohesive new look team, two new cars, high level technical data and two experienced and enthusiastic drivers, ready to take on the challenges of the 2008 championship series.
Russell Ingall has been impressed by Morris’ commitment to the new team, including the signing of a new engineer for Ingall’s car, James Small, who has come across from the successful Garry Rogers Motorsport Team. “All the people involved have been carefully selected not only on their ability, but on their ability to gel well with others because that’s a major factor,” he said. “It was definitely a careful selection and I’d say it’s one of the best-assembled crew of any V8 Supercar team.
“To be honest, that’s the backbone of the whole thing. Without good people behind the scenes, you’re just not going to win so that was the number one priority.
”Everything else flows on from there. Yes, it’s important to build a good race car, but you can’t do that unless you have good people.”
Ingall has been given a free rein by Morris, the opportunity to turn his horse’s head in whichever direction he wishes it to go. “I wanted Russell to be around as much as he can, and in the past month he’s probably been in the workshop more than I have, which is great,” he said. “He’s rolled up his sleeves and gone in there and is helping everyone as much as he can. I have given him free rein to do what he wants with his car, and how he wants to do it.
“He’s not just a steering wheel attendant at our place; he’s part of the whole operation. It’s been good for me to have someone I can rely on to do that stuff as well. Right down to the livery, Russell’s been involved in that as well.
“He has the results and we’re expecting him to perform, but we have to make sure we have good enough cars to do it, and he’s part of that process as well. There’s no one to blame except ourselves if it doesn’t go the way we want it to.”
Speaking of the $200,000 expenditure which saw Ingall’s #39 Commodore sent to the US for intensive suspension setup testing on a seven-post shaker rig in Hendersonville and 20 hours in a wind tunnel, Morris is positive it was money well spent.
“It was hugely beneficial, a lot more value than what you can learn by just driving a car around at a test track,” Morris said. “There are a few small things that we’ll get gains from straight away. We’ve looked at what we’ve got now and how we can make it better, and now we’ve got to go away and make the parts to make the improvements.
“At the moment it’s all-hands-on-deck just trying to get the two cars finished in time for the test day and the first race. Those first three race meetings are really close together so to make any new stuff for the cars, you probably won’t see that until the fourth round.”
Ingall was also confident about the ability of his car and the involvement of new sponsor, Supercheap Auto. “The cars are coming along extremely well, they’ve got some very innovative ideas under the skin that hopefully will give them a bit of an edge over the competitors,” he said.
“The engine development program is going well, that’s stepped up another level, all the data picked up from the US has been analysed by the new engineers and they’re very happy with what’s been achieved over there. So far so good, everything’s been working extremely well. The short timeline to the first meeting (Clipsal 500) is probably the only negative, but that’s out of our hands.
“Saying that, we’re fairly confident that by the time we head there, we’ll get the test out of the way which will tell us a lot and we’ll be pretty much on the money by the time we get to Adelaide. It’s a big learning curve.”
Ingall is hoping that his fans will take to his move from the blue oval as readily and enthusiastically as he himself has after an initial luke-warm reception to the news. “Now, all of a sudden, they’re hearing about the stuff that’s going on and the effort that’s going on behind the scenes, and all of a sudden the feedback we’re getting is that we could be a bit of a surprise package this year,” he said.
“We’ve gone public with what we’re doing, not because we care what other teams think, but because we do care what our fans and potential fans think,” he said. “This is a serious effort, and I think a lot of people are suddenly thinking ‘these guys could be the dark horses in this year’s championship’ and it’s a nice position to be in.”
Morris and Ingall ready to take on the world
All the best and welcome back, Russell.
Images courtesy of the official Paul Morris website
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