Mobil 1: HRT's engine protector until 2005
31/10/2002 19:06 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
The Holden Racing Team’s Jeff Grech reckons it was the Mobil oil that won Mark Skaife and Jim Richards this year's Bathurst 1000 title. So today’s announcement of a three-year contract extension with Mobil has been met with relief by the team’s mastermind.
After a blocked radiator duct almost terminally cooked the No. 1 Commodore's engine over the tense final laps of last month’s Bathurst classic, a sponsor-conscious Grech praised the oil that has coursed though the team’s engines for nine years.
"I know Mobil is a sponsor, but there is no way anything but a synthetic would cop those temperatures,” he said after the race.
"A mineral oil would have fried! It's a bloody good oil!"
The high-profile partnership will continue through 2005, marking one of the sport’s most enduring and successful corporate relationships.
"Mobil has been an enormous help to us over the years,” Grech said. “They have taken our engine people to Exxon Mobil headquarters in the USA so we can talk directly with their engineers and technical staff as well as their motorsport partners over there, and they are always analysing the product here in Australia after racing and reporting back their findings.
"It's a real partnership thing and while I'm ecstatic that Mobil has signed on again for another three years, it's also a relief to know that technical back-up and support remains with HRT."
Mobil’s Greg Smith said the company hopes to keep the team at the head of the pack.
"You can not question the outstanding performance of the Holden Race Team over the last seven years," he said. "Mobil is extremely proud to be involved with what is clearly the most successful and professional racing team in V8 Supercar history.”
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