Tom Walkinshaw past, present, future

The burly Scot is just past 60 these days and looks a little more relaxed than he was during his early days in Australia in the 1980s, but don't be fooled.

Walkinshaw is a hard-headed businessman who hates to lose just as much as he did when he was winning car races and championships for everyone from Ford to Jaguar and Benetton F1.

Walkinshaw has rebounded from the time when he faced bankruptcy and lost his mighty Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) empire in Britain as a result of a cash crisis for his Arrows Grand Prix team. He is now kicking goals and cashing cheques, which means he is finally happy to sit down and talk.

Walkinshaw is still not happy about his setbacks in Australia, but emphatically denies he was ever bankrupt or in danger of losing HSV.

"I'm not bankrupt. I was never bankrupt," he says blunty.

He also says the loss of HRT, which cut him deeply and sparked his motorsport comeback plan down under, was entirely down to the ambitions of former Holden head Peter Hanenberger.

Walkinshaw is open on almost every front except Skaife and keen to set the record straight. Particularly on HSV and his other local business interests.

"I think we've got to manage a way with HSV through the tight financial times we find ourselves in. Keep our volume as near as possible as we can to last year, keep the structure in place . . . and support Holden through the same process, as they are our partner and biggest customer.

Is he confident?

"Yes."

But Walkinshaw had a health scare last year, he is not getting younger, and the travel between the UK and Australia gets him down despite a home-away-from-home in Melbourne. So, is he thinking about retirement?

"No. I go down and have a coffee with Bernie Ecclestone (the 78-year- old F1 supremo) from time to time and realise I've got a long way to go," he says.

"I wouldn't know what to do. The wife would throw me out. She's quite happy every morning when I go out to work."

Here, then, is what Walkinshaw has to say on the key issues facing him and his companies:

PERSONAL HISTORY:

"The last year I raced seriously was 1985 in the Jaguars we brought to Bathurst.

"I was pretty good. I think I had a strong head. I was brought up in single seaters so in a touring car nothing was happening very quick.

"I was good at getting cars engineered to perform properly. I was driving the factory Ford in the UK, and they had a special vehicle operation. I was asked to look at some of the Ford product and I got the job of developing the RS2000 Escort as an engineering job.

"Then I picked up another job that meant I had to hire someone to help me. It sort of grew from there.

"I've worked for Ford, BMW, over 60 brands. Saab, Volvo. On all sorts of things.

"Most of the work we did with TWR was confidential, so people don't need to now about it.

"I probably had 2000 people working for me at one time. Now it's about 600. We've got Australia and we've got stuff in India. There is not so much stuff in the UK any more. It's too expensive."

HOLDEN SPECIAL VEHICLES:

"I think it's got a very bright future," Walkinshaw says.

"I think we're as good as anything in the market, irrespective of where it comes from. We're much better value than Audi or BMW or Mercedes.

"We say we're better, but let's say we're comparable and at a much lower price.

"To be honest with you, we've not looked at Ford that much. We were tasked originally to create a high-performance car for Holden. We benchmark everything with the European products.

"The latest car is by far the best and the latest range of HSV products is exceptionally, exceptionally good. The 427 is a phenomenal car, and I think it's the best high-performance car ever built in Australia. It sits at a price, but for that price it had to be very unique and very special.

"We're keeping growing every year. I think we're an integral part of the Holden product range.

"We will do, as we do with the Astra at the moment, look at a broadening the range with smaller cars.

"I think exports are going reasonably well. They're a bit slow at the moment with currencies flowing up and down all over the place so you've got to be careful not to get your fingers burned.

"We've sold about 1500 if you include New Zealand."

ELFIN:

"That's a good question. I've asked myself that several times "When we decided to invest everything was roaring ahead. Once we got into it we realised it really needed to create a better product than we had at the time. The guys have done that.

"At the moment the car is launched and we will build a modest volume until the economies improve through the world. It is very difficult to plan. . .

"What I'm pleased about is that, in the, T5 we've produced a cracking car. And I think it's the right size for today's human being.

"At the moment you wouldn't make anything for the UK because it's too expensive and nobody is buying toys. It's not everyday transport, it's something you take out on the weekend and have fun in."

HOLDEN RACING TEAM:

"I'm not a good loser. I think it was particularly difficult to take last year, because it was the third year in a row that we threw Bathurst away. The last two years we were leading, and . . .

"It's just not acceptable. For whatever reason. This is not what we're paid to do.

"Nothing was working. They were all fighting with each other. Then Holden asked me to come in an manage it, tell them what was going wrong.

"I think we are starting again and getting re-focussed. We are not paid by Holden to go motor racing to have fun. We're paid to get results and we're re-focussed on that. That's as it should be.

"I expect them to win a lot of races. I think they are two good young drives, both with enormous ability, and I think Will Davison will extract the performance back out of Garth Tander that he is capable of."

"I'd like to know who's won more races in V8 Supercars than me. If you look at the support we've given the formula over the last two decades I doubt anyone comes close to investing the money we have.

"We're got to get back to winning races regularly and Bathurst and the championship. The priorities are quite easy."

FORMULA ONE:

"It ended badly, but not really through any fault of our own. It was venture capitalists being too damn greedy with Arrows.

"I was the one that brought Michael Schumacher into Benetton. I was put into Benetton to sort it out from being a comedy outfit into a decent team. I actually restructured Benetton, and I had 35 per cent of the company of the time.

"We were fairly fundamental to the success of that team.

"Arrows failed because we had an offer of $160 million from Red Bull, and the venture capitalists wanted more. We were tied up in so many rows . . . the whole thing then very quickly fell over.

"The problem then was to get to the end of a year I put in a lot of money from TWR . . . and you had the knock-on effect on the TWR governance on debt.

"I often think back and ask how I did not go crazy. You were dealing with things that you thought could never happen. But it did, and so you have to deal with it.

"Nothing in Australia was affected by it. We were asked to give up the ownership of HRT because there were people at Fishermans Bend at that time who had aspirations of running a race team. We didn't need any pressure on our core business and that's why I agreed to roll over.

MARK SKAIFE:

Let's be quite clear. We're not revisited everything that went on last year. It's time to move on. There has been far too much written about what went on.

"I'm not opening that up again. I think it's inappropriate.

"I met Mark for lunch yesterday. We had coffee and lunch. There is no problem between Mark and I on that front. Mark, I don't think, has any clear process on whether he is even interested in racing now."