Clarity on Walkinshaw Racing’s structure for next season is unlikely to come until after Bathurst as the squad fights to retain its four-car presence.
The Holden Racing Team side of the operation is set to enjoy relative stability, with drivers James Courtney and Garth Tander and primary sponsor Holden already locked in to continue.
A level of uncertainty surrounds its remaining two entries, however, with Supercheap Auto and Tim Slade both out of contract and Charlie Schwerkolt needing to fund the team’s fourth car.
Hopeful of retaining status quo for 2016, team owner Ryan Walkinshaw admits that all cars will need to be fully funded in order to continue.
The team’s deals for its fourth car were done late in both 2013 and 2014; James Rosenberg Racing linking with and eventually splitting from the squad in successive Novembers.
Rosenberg and driver Nick Percat were quickly replaced by Schwerkolt and Lee Holdsworth for this season after Walkinshaw proved unwilling to bridge JRR’s sponsorship shortfall.
“As far as we are concerned we have made no decisions on what we are doing for next year,” Walkinshaw told Speedcafe.com.
“If we have four fully funded cars that’s what we’d anticipate running unless something came in and changes our minds.
“We’ve got a pretty good commercial department and we talk to a lot of different sponsors from within the sport currently and external ones as well.
“We’ll evaluate our position going forwards like we always do after Bathurst.
“We didn’t decide whether we would go to four cars or three cars until well after Bathurst two years ago.
“At the moment our focus is on getting the results.”
Courtney, Tander, Slade and Lee Holdsworth sit sixth, seventh, 14th and 19th in the championship respectively after six of 14 events.
The team’s second season under high profile recruit Adrian Burgess has thus far netted a single win for Courtney amid fluctuating form.
“There’s no denying that Prodrive are doing very, very well and we’ve got to step up our game and compete,” said Walkinshaw of the team’s performance.
“There’s a lot of talk about the aero stuff, but there’s still a couple of Holden cars who are in front of us in the championship.
“Regardless of any of the aero discussions we have to beat them first and foremost.
“We are focussing on ourselves at the moment and making sure that we’re doing the best we can.”
As previously reported, other four-car teams Prodrive and Nissan Motorsport are also working to retain their line-ups for next year.
CLICK HERE for Speedcafe.com’s overview of the 2016 driver market from earlier this week.