Lies, damn lies [Team Kiwi Racing follow-up]

A little over a week ago, I wrote this post. The follow-up aspect of this post centres on this quote from a press release published on the TKR website:

'Team Kiwi Racing announced today it will offer five of New Zealand's top drivers the opportunity to compete in the Australian V8 Supercar Championship this year in the TKR All Black machine.'

Yet in the ongoing theme of TKR changing its mind and contradicting itself, this comes from a press release dated Thursday.

'Talented Kiwi driver Johnny Reid... will be testing the TKR All Black V8 Supercar at Queensland Raceway today along with Dean Fiore... and Steve Owen. An announcement if Reid is the successful driver or not for the 2009 in the TKR car will be made shortly.'

The crucial points are: Owen and Fiore are both Australians, and the season begins next weekend. Who will pilot the black beast if not Reid? Surely it would be Owen and Fiore, who obviously fit the 'five of New Zealand's top drivers' requirement. It's also worthwile noting that David John is apparently not in charge of TKR anymore, instead, his accountant, Mike McDonald is. Also, at this week's testing in Queensland the TKR machine was simply last year's Supercheap Auto car with a black fern on the bonnet. Not a single sponsor's decal to be seen.

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Team Kiwi Racing make no sense... No sense at all.

I make no secret I don't like David John and the current Team Kiwi Racing establishment. They aim for that 'underdog' tag, but for many years they've been outed by the public, fingered by their former drivers and taken to court for their dodgy business dealings, while managing to maintain a stable base of casual V8 fans, who don't realise the team is actually getting no results.

The latest press release from Fortress TKR suggests that John has forgotten about these fans and is just gonna do whatever he wants anyway. After all, wadda you know about running a V8 team?

"The questions that were asked of the New Zealand public where [sic], did they want the team to chase results this season (which would require the services of an Aussie driver with previous V8 Supercar championship experience) or are the public happy to see the TKR machine run in the second half of the field while providing the opportunity for Kiwi drivers who simply do not know the Aussie circuits or have the experience/track time in a V8 Supercar". Said Mr John

Despite there being plenty of support for putting an Aussie in the car for one season and getting results we have decided to keep providing Kiwi drivers with opportunities to break into the top Touring Car Championship in the world.

So in a brief history of TKR, you've been operating for nine years, you've thrown out one long-term driver in favour of another who left when you didn't pay FPR, Ford and Holden AUS will not sponsor you, the Ford factory team [FPR] and Stone Brothers Racing have both taken you to court for monies owed, you've been using kiwis [bar Adam Macrow, Steve Owen and Fahad Al Musalam] for these years and yet your best round result since 2005 was when Owen drove at Indy last year, gone from Holden to Ford to Holden, your owner has been declared bankrupt and yet you still manage to hold on to a licence, denying other teams the chance to compete and now you decide to put out a spun press release painting you as some sort of patriot, when we know a green kiwi driver will be cheaper than someone with experience. This is ignoring the fact that four drivers are in the series this year, and one only had a small link to you.

What the fuck?

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