Paul Weel Racing
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| Manufacturer | Holden |
|---|---|
| Team Principal | Kees Weel |
| Team Manager | Paul Weel |
| Race Drivers | 50. Andrew Thompson |
| Chassis | VE Commodore |
| Debut | 1997 |
| Drivers' Championships | 0 |
| Round wins | 3 |
| Pole positions | 6 |
| 2007 position | 10th (104 points) |
Paul Weel Racing is a V8 Supercar racing team.
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[edit] Ford Years
PWR Racing started out as a single car operation from Queensland where the family lives. The team ran an ex-Longhurst EL Falcon for Paul Weel, a graduate of stadium off-road racing. Very much a privateer outfit in the beginning the team expanded quickly and Paul Weel's ability increased to become one of the front running privateer operations. They soon constructed their own AU Falcon in preference to buying used racecars from more senior outfits and even built cars specifically for front running teams, notably fellow front running Queensland privateers, Greenfield Mowers Racing. A highlight of this period was finishing inside the top ten at the Bathurst 1000 on their first two attempts in 1998 and 1999 and qualifying for Bathurst Shootout in 2001.
[edit] Moving to Holden
After a few seasons pulling out the team, the Weel's made a partnership with the late Peter Brock and grew the team to two cars and hiring the services of Jason Bright after he left The Holden Racing Team. In 2004, the team was self-sponsored by Kees and Paul's performance and modification company, PWR Performance. The team had a good year with Bright claiming 3rd in the championship.
[edit] Parntership with SuperCheap Auto
In 2005, the team rejuvenated after they announced that they partnered themselves with Automotive parts giant, SuperCheap Auto who had some lean years with Ford and Steve Ellery Racing and had left in the middle of the Indy 300 round in 2004. More shock announcements came when Greg Murphy joined the team replacing Bright. The other shock announcement was that SCAR/PWR were going to use engines made by Perkins Engineering while still having ties with Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) by using older specification chassis originally used by HRT. The team had some early joy with Murphy winning the second round of the 2005 series in his native New Zealand. But when they switched to the Perkins "Aurora" engine after the Shanghai round, the team were struggling with reliability, poor consistency and both Murphy and Weel were complaining of an imbalance and handling difficulties. Murphy made headlines after tapping Marcos Ambrose into the wall at the 2005 Bathurst 1000 and the two had a heated argument.
At the end of the season, Paul Weel announced his retirement from full time racing to focus on his aftermarket performance company, PWR. He was replaced by Cameron McConville and the team was joined by finance giant No Limit. In 2006, Supercheap Auto Racing had a string of bad luck, only scoring a couple of Top 10 finishes.
For the 2007 season, it has been announced that Paul Dumbrell will replace Murphy. For a first for the team, the team will have two new chassis built for them by Dencar, the chassis engineering arm of Walkinshaw Performance. While still using the Perkins engine, the engines would be serviced "in house".
[edit] Collapse and re-birth
Just before the 2007 Winton round, it was announced that Kees and Paul Weel had sold their team to John Marshall, CEO of No Limit Finance. Kees and Paul were still going to manage the team for the rest of the season, with the handover date somewhere in the near future. It was rumored that John's son, Marcus Marshall was going to drive in the endurance rounds of this year with Matthew White while Paul Weel was going to be "axed". In June 2007 though, the sale of the team fell through. Kees and Paul Weel continued to run the team. In November 2007 year, it was announced that Kees and Paul Weel will close the team down, with the expansion of the PWR Performance company restricting his time to effectively run the team.
As the 2008 season approached the threat of $150,000 fines for not entering a car with sales of the teams two franchises proving problematic, the team announced a deal to run former Fujitsu V8 Supercars Series front runner Andrew Thompson for the 2008 season in one of the teams VE Commodores.
[edit] External links
- The Supercheap Auto Racing website
- No Limit buys SuperCheap Auto Racing
- Dumbrell to Super Cheap Auto Racing
- SuperCheap Racing pulls out]
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