WPS Racing was a motorsport

Motorsport

Motorsport or motorsports is the group of sports which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles, whether for racing or non-racing competition...

 team that participated in the V8 Supercars competition in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 sponsored by Wright Patton Shakespeare, a financial management company. The team was founded in early 2004 by Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

-based businessman Craig Gore

Craig Gore

Craig Gore is a property developer, from Queensland, Australia. He is the son of property developer Mike Gore.-Business affairs:He is the former owner of the Australian financial planning chain "WPS", property development company "Consolidated Construction", luxury home builder "Consolidated...

, who bought the embattled 00 Motorsport and re-emerged as WPS Racing. In 2006, WPS Racing merged with Larkham Motorsport, and ended operations in 2008.

WPS takeover

Craig Gore purchased the remnants of the Forbes Racing operation when it ceased racing in 2006. During their first season in 2004, the team decided to have more of a developmental year than to chase the championship. They had four drivers, originally with veteran Mark Noske

Mark Noske

Mark Noske is an Australian V8 Supercar driver. Noske has never placed higher than third in a national event, but has placed third four times in such events.-Formula Racing:...

, who left before the endurance races. Alex Yoong

Alex Yoong

Alexander Charles Yoong Loong , is a Malaysian race car driver of European and Asian parentage. His mother, Joanna Bean, is from England. His father, Hanifah Yoong Yin Fah , a Malaysian Chinese, is a former racer and manager of the Shah Alam circuit between 1988 and 1998...

 stepped up after doing some races in the Development Series with a WPS backed AU Falcon, but was fired after the Indy round. He was replaced by Owen Kelly (no relation to V8 Supercar drivers Todd Kelly

Todd Kelly

Todd Kelly is a V8 Supercar racing driver, currently living in Melbourne, Victoria. He is the older brother of former V8 Supercar and Bathurst 1000 champion, Rick Kelly. He drove for the Holden Racing Team from 2003 until 2007, and Jack Daniel's Racing in 2008...

 and Rick Kelly

Rick Kelly

Rick Kelly is a current V8 Supercar racing driver, currently living in Melbourne, Victoria. He is the younger brother of former Bathurst 1000 champion, Todd Kelly...

). David Besnard

David Besnard

David Besnard, , in Sydney, Australia is a professional race car driver. Starting in Karts in 1981, he quickly proceeded into Formula Ford in 1995. After initial success, he had a major accident at Eastern Creek Raceway and broke his leg. In 1996 he made a comeback and won the Australian title...

 stuck with the team for the season and managed one race win at the Tasmania round. 2005 saw the introduction of a season-lasting second driver with Craig Baird

Craig Baird

Craig George Baird MNZM is a race car driver. Baird is a very successful driver in his homeland, winning three consecutive New Zealand Formula Atlantic championship titles , and then four consecutive New Zealand Touring Car Championship titles .Since then Baird has raced in Australian Super...

, who teamed up with Besnard to finish eighth in that year's Bathurst 1000

Bathurst 1000

The Bathurst 1000 is a touring car race held annually at Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia...

. Champ Car

Champ Car

Champ Car was the name for a class and specification of open wheel cars used in American Championship Car Racing for many decades, primarily for use in the Indianapolis 500 auto race...

 and Team Australia

Team Australia

Team Australia was an Auto racing team competing in the V8 Supercars and Champ Car World Series. It was created in early 2005 when two Australian businessmen bought into Derrick Walker's Walker Racing operation...

 drivers Alex Tagliani

Alex Tagliani

Alexandre Tagliani is a Canadian auto racing driver from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He currently competes in the IZOD IndyCar Series, driving the #77 entry for Sam Schmidt Motorsports.-Champ Car career:...

 (With Alex being the first Canadian driving a Ford Falcon ever since the famous Allan Moffat) and Marcus Marshall

Marcus Marshall

Marcus Marshall is a former Champ Car driver from Australia. Before that he raced in British Formula Three, where he was generally a running outside the top ten, but took a hard fought win in a wet race. He contested 12 races in 2005 for Derrick Walker's renamed Team Australia Racing...

 teamed up together in the #8 Falcon which was repainted to look like their Champ Cars and race suits.

In 2006, WPS Racing merged with Larkham Motorsport and took on two new drivers; former Bathurst champion Jason Bargwanna

Jason Bargwanna

Jason Bargwanna is an Australian racing driver who competes in the V8 Supercar Championship Series.-Career history:Bargwanna commenced his racing career in the late 1980s, initially competing in the Formula Vee category...

 and Brazilian Max Wilson

Max Wilson

Max Wilson, , is a racing driver of Brazilian parentage.He started his motor racing career in 1985 in go-karts...

.

This season saw that Bargwanna and Wilson stayed with the team but team manager Mark Larkham and longtime partner of Larkham, Orrcon left with Orrcon re-sponsoring Mark Winterbottom

Mark Winterbottom

Mark "Frosty" Winterbottom, is a racing driver who has competed in the V8 Supercar category since 2003. He currently drives for the Ford Performance Racing team...

 and joining Ford Performance Racing

Ford Performance Racing

Ford Performance Racing is a British-owned Australian-based motor racing team that contests the Australian International V8 Supercars Championship...

. Sponsor WOW Sight and Sound increased their sponsorship by being the title sponsor to the #8 Falcon. Ford Rising Stars Racing's Grant Denyer

Grant Denyer

Grant Denyer is an Australian television reporter, personality and motor racing driver.-Television career:In 1997, Denyer began his career in the media, he gained a position at Prime Television in Wagga Wagga as a news reporter and journalist...

 and Michael Caruso were the team's endurance drivers for 2007. This had sparked rumors that WPS Racing and Ford have made amends after years of controversy until the folding of the team in 2008.

Withdrawal from V8 Supercars

In October, 2007, owner Craig Gore was involved in a helicopter accident which caused considerable damage to his inner ear. On medical advice he had been told to avoid any sources of loud noises, thus stopping him from attending V8 Supercar events. Attempts were made to sell the team as a going concern in late 2007 and early 2008 but it was not able to be sold. So in February 2008, it was announced that the team would no longer function or take part in the 2008 season.

Controversy

In the 2004 Tasmanian Round warm-up session, both cars were black-flagged for having the slogan "No money from Ford" on top of the windscreen. This slogan was deemed unsportsmanlike in the V8 Supercar series. The slogan was to highlight that WPS Racing's owner Craig Gore was not happy with Ford not giving the team financial backing and not having any sponsorship from the car company.

External links

• No money from Ford link
• Gore Withdraws from V8