Paul Weel Racing
 | |
| Team Principal | Kees Weel |
|---|---|
| Debut | 1997 |
| Final Season | 2008 |
| Round wins | 3 |
| Pole positions | 6 |
| 2008 position | 16th (767 points) |
Paul Weel Racing is a former Australian motor racing team which competed in the V8 Supercar Championship Series, owned by Kees Weel and his son Paul.
Ford Years
PWR Racing started out as a single car operation from Queensland where the family lived. The team ran an ex-Longhurst EL Falcon for Paul Weel, a graduate of stadium off-road racing and wearing signage of family-owned companies. 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 the top 15 Shootout at Bathurst 2001.
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 Holden Racing Team and rebranding themselves as Team Brock, the title previously used by Rod Nash Racing and gaining sponsorship from Betta Electrical chain of electrical retail stores. In 2004, the team was self-funded again, this time by Kees and Paul's performance and modification company, PWR Performance. The team had a good year with Bright, claiming third in the championship.
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 announcement was that SCAR/PWR were going to use engines built 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 Performance Products. The team signed Cameron McConville and the team was joined by finance giant No Limit. In 2006, the team had a string of bad luck, only scoring a couple of Top 10 finishes.
In 2007 Paul Dumbrell[1] replaced Murphy. Another change was in order when PWR got outsourced chassis for the first time. These came from Dencar, the chassis engineering arm of Walkinshaw Performance. While still using the Perkins engine, the engines would be serviced "in house".
Collapse and re-birth
In November 2007, it was announced that Kees and Paul Weel would close the team down, with the expansion of the PWR Performance company restricting their time to effectively run the team.[2] As the 2008 season approached the threat of $150,000 fines, per race, 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, while the second franchise was moved and acquired by Ford Rising Stars Racing.
It was announced that the 2008 season would be the last for the team and the franchise had been sold to another team for 2009, bringing to an end eleven years of competition.[3]
2008 PWR announced the team cars and equipment, HQ were for sale, 4 VZ Commodore 2 VE's, Paul Weel Bathurst damaged car was scrapped, So P Dumbrell / A Thomson car VE011 was ready to be sold. 1 complete VZ the Ex J Bright 047 car was also ready to be sold, 041, 042, 046 awaited rebuild, engine and gearboxes 047 chassis car was sold to Holden Racing (UK) Ltd and remains in the UK. The other cars have remained in Australia. Kees and Paul Weel have remained in motor sport albeit, off-road competition.
References
- ↑ Dumbrell to Supercheap Auto Racing
- ↑ SuperCheap Racing pulls out
- ↑ "PWR:Over". Motorsport News. 2008-11-11. p. 11. Retrieved 2008-11-12.