One of the silliest silly seasons in V8 Supercars is almost over with most of the driver seats locked away.
A raft of driver changes has occurred while a number of teams have folded with new ones ready to take their place.
One of the most important and contentious changes is that of TeamVodafone, which joins the red side in 2010 and will run Commodores.
What remains to be seen is whether the Commodores will be quick out of the box, but considering they are Triple Eight-prepared cars it would not be presumptuous to believe they will be.
Paul Cruickshank Racing will not field an entry in 2010 and former driver Fabian Coulthard is another driver who is following TeamVodafone to Holden.
Coulthard will drive a Walkinshaw Racing Commodore while Bundaberg has extended its sponsorship of the team to cover both Coulthard’s car along with fellow Walkinshaw recruit Andrew Thompson, who returns as a fulltime driver after a year-long hiatus from the main game.
Two new teams – Tony D’Alberto Racing and Lucas Dumbrell Racing – have been born out of the closure of Tasman Motorsport and drivers Greg Murphy and Jason Bargwanna have found new homes.
Bargs has joined Todd and Rick Kelly at Kelly Racing although the team’s fourth driver is yet to be confirmed while Murph will join Paul Morris Motorsport driving a Castrol-liveried Commodore.
Jason Bright is another Ford defector, joining Brad Jones Racing alongside Jason Richards although Paul Dumbrell has defected the other way, leaving Walkinshaw to drive the Ford Performance Racing-prepared Bottle-O Falcon under the Rod Nash Racing entry.
Holdens make up two-thirds of the 2010 V8 Supercar field, meaning the remaining Ford teams have their work cut out for them.
Ford has indicated it will pump more money into supporting more teams than it did in 2009, but to date its exact plans have not been forthcoming.
2010 driver line-up:
Brad Jones Racing: Jason Richards, Jason Bright and Karl Reindler (TBC)
Ford Performance Racing: Steve Richards and Mark Winterbottom
Garry Rogers Motorsport: Michael Caruso and Lee Holdsworth
James Rosenberg Racing: Tim Slade
Dick Johnson Racing: James Courtney, Steve Johnson and Jonathon Webb
Kelly Racing: Rick Kelly, Todd Kelly, Jason Bargwanna and a fourth driver TBA
Lucas Dumbrell Racing: TBA
Paul Morris Motorsport: Russell Ingall and Greg Murphy
Rod Nash Racing: Paul Dumbrell
Stone Brothers Racing: Alex Davison and Shane van Gisbergen
TeamVodafone: Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup
Toll Holden Racing Team: Garth Tander and Will Davison
Tony D’Alberto Racing: Tony D’Alberto
Walkinshaw Racing: Fabian Coulthard and Andrew Thompson
Triple F Racing: Dean Fiore