Why the HYL is a prime example for Ford.

Following Holden's resurrection of the Holden Young Lions driver development program for the 2006 Australian V8 Supercar Championship, one wonders what Ford's reaction to such an initiative must be writes Matthew Agius.

Fabian Coulthard, Alan Gurr, Tony D'Alberto along with V8 Supercar rookies Shane Price and Jack Perkins are sure to reap the benefits of the revised Holden Young Lions scheme in 2006. After a hiatus of several years, Holden Motorsport rekindled its development flame and has allowed these five drivers to benefit from its vast resources.

Certainly, the three-peat of Ford championship victories in the V8 Supercar Series is something that Holden would love to put an end to in 2006, but by developing tomorrow's young guns, a future champion could be driving in one of the less-competitive cars today.

Many Holden and V8 heroes got their first gig in a Holden Young Lions Commodore. The likes of Todd and Rick Kelly both had their first sprint-series drives in HYL machinery, whilst Jason Bargwanna and Steven Ellery both began in the program before later defecting to Ford.

But whilst Ford has won three championships on the trot, a look down their driver lineup reveals little driver development, and a long list of ex-Holden drivers.

Reigning champion Russell Ingall, 2006 title favourite Craig Lowndes, Clipsal 500 winner Jamie Whincup, the aforementioned Bargwanna, Will Davison, and to a lesser extent James Courtney have all started their sprint race careers in a Commodore.

Certainly of these drivers only one has netted the Blue Oval a championship and have yet to deliver the faithful a Bathurst win in a drought that extends seven years. In fact only three Falcon drivers - Steven Johnson, Warren Luff and Mark Winterbottom - have spent their entire career in a Falcon since joining the series as a youngster. The only other driver to spend his entire career under the Ford umbrella is veteran John Bowe, who will probably retire from full time competition within the next five years.

Too bad for Ford then - it's all well and good to offer big pay cheques to Holden drivers to jump the fence, but in ten years time where are the new guys going to be coming from?

The key lies in driver development, and the trend against Ford in this area is not encouraging.

Of the drivers to win the V8 Development Series in a Falcon - only one driver currently drives for the Blue Oval. Mark Winterbottom is now driving the Ford Credit Falcon at Ford Performance Racing, but of his fellow Ford championship winners, well, they're at Holden.

Ford teams didn't offer 2004 Konica Minolta champion Andrew Jones a drive, but Garry Rogers Motorsport did. Even though he was sacked before the end of the 2005 series, Jones is back driving for Tasman Motorsport. 2000 and 2005 series winner Dean Canto absolutely annihilated the opposition in last year's HPDC series, yet despite this, there were no vacancies to incorporate this truly talented driver into Ford's lineup - he is now spearheading the GRM Holden team and is doing a decent job in the team's lead car.

So with talent such as this slipping through the cracks at Ford, what can be done to ensure Ford starts grooming a younger generation for the future? A program similar to the Holden Young Lions could be the answer.

There is one franchise available for use in the V8 Supercars main game. If Ford were to encourage a satellite operation to begin in order to provide opportunities for development or open wheeler drivers, the experience allowed in the main game would be invaluable.

A rotational policy similar to Paul Morris Motorsports' Alan Gurr/Fabian Coulthard combination would also work, allowing several drivers to experience driving in the premier V8 class.

The final option would be to mimic the current Young Lions formula of providing assistance and development to younger drivers across both the V8 Supercar Series and also the Fujitsu series. Invaluable encouragement such as this can be a real boost to fledgling drivers and would be more than suitable to improve young driver quality.

But perhaps an alternative answer lies in the connection between Britek Motorsport and the Development Series - that being the naming-rights sponsor for both entities, Fujitsu. With Fujitsu Racing employing two 2005 Development Series competitors, Warren Luff and Jose Fernandez, perhaps it could offer a drive to the champion of the series at selected rounds, especially as the trend in the tier two category leans towards operating Falcons.

Not only would this help Ford keep its future stars in training, but would provide a wealth of experiences not presented to drivers in the Fujitsu series, such as media skills, driving a V8 Supercar against the best in the nation and treating the sport as a full time job rather than racing at a track on the odd weekend throughout the year.

With youngsters such as Adam Macrow, Michael Caruso, Chris Pither, Marcus La Delle and Adam Thompson all manning competitive seats in the Fujitsu Series, the ball is surely in Ford's court to secure these driver's abilities for the future.