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Old 28 May 2013, 04:18 (Ref:3254324)   #1
GTRMagic
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Join Date: Dec 2002
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"We are committed to HRT" - Ryan Walkinshaw

Interesting story on the V8Supercar website.. Story Here

I cant imagine that anyone in that part of Melbourne is too impressed with the on-track performance of the once-mighty Holden Racing Team.

Not having won since Bathurst 2011, and arguably not in contention for a win too often since then, there has to be some kind of inflection to understand what the next right move should be.

What would also likely be an impactor here is the level of merchandise sales at the WP juggernaut.

Once, when they were winning almost always, just about every Holden supporter in the crowd had an HRT item on, a hat, a jacket, waving the flag.

HRT usually gave their merchandise product a yearly refresh, and the faithful bought in droves... they seemingly couldnt get enough.

There were suggestions back in the day of $20m a year in merchandise turnover for the group... a nice profit contributor to the team budget you would think.

Then the lack of ontrack success seemed to change the market, the Holden faithful moved to the winners, the Team Vodafones.. and now as RBRA... even at the test day, there dozens of people in Red Bull F1 gear to support that team!

It becomes an ever decreasing spiral though, the profit from merchandise reduces, less money to spend on the team, the team doesnt perform as well as the fans might like, and then they buy less...

So... when will the Walkinshaws offload HRT? And who might be a likely buyer?

Presuming any of this actually happened
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