10 YEARS DOWN THE TRACK
The Cars of Team Steel
Orrcon Steel is celebrating its 11th year of involvement in the V8 Supercars Championship this year.
Since first appearing back in 2002, the steel giant has had its name on the flanks of a range of Falcons driven by many stars of the sport.
From Mark Winterbottom to Steve Richards and Jason Bargwanna to Mark Larkham, Orrcon Steel has seen them all.
But have you ever stopped to wonder just how many actual cars Orrcon Steel has appeared on during that time? It’s probably more than you think!
V8 Supercars TV commentator and statsman Aaron Noonan is the unrivalled ‘V8 Sleuth’ around the pits. He’s compiled an impressive list of all of the cars that have carried the Orrcon Steel colours over the last decade and detailed their highs and lows.
You might just be amazed by the journeys of these cars that have all, at one point in time over the last decade, proudly carried the colours of Orrcon Steel.
M-TEK 003 – Ford Falcon AU
M-TEK 003
This car was the machine that replaced the AU Falcon that was destroyed in a fireball accident involving its driver Mark Larkham and Paul Morris at Oran Park back in 2000.
In fact, there were quite a few parts used from the destroyed car that were still fine for racing that were used in its build.
After being used for a few seasons by Larkham in Mitre 10 colours, it then becoming his team’s spare car in 2002 and was returned to race tracks in 2003 as Larkham’s #10 Orrcon Steel Falcon.
In 2003 the Queensland-based team expanded to two cars for the first time with the addition of Jason Bargwanna, so Larkham drove this car for the majority of the ’03 season before it was rested for the endurance races at Sandown and Bathurst and not used again for the rest of the year.
This car then sat around at the team’s workshop as they focused on running their newer BA model Falcons, before it was announced the chassis would be rebuilt as part of collaboration with a TAFE college as a project.
Larkham retained ownership of the car and by 2008 it had gone to the Warwick TAFE in Queensland to be re-assembled as part of their motorsport program.
Today, Larkham retains the car and he intends to finish the restoration and put the car back to its former glory as a project to be undertaken by he and teenage son Judd.
Orrcon Steel Race Years:
2003 (Mark Larkham)
Orrcon Steel Bathurst 1000 Years:
Did Not Compete in Bathurst 1000.
M-TEK 004 – Ford Falcon AU
M-TEK 004
This car has the distinction of being the very first V8 Supercar to carry the Orrcon Steel blue and yellow colours in 2002.
It had been built late in 2001 by Mark Larkham’s team and became the #10 Orrcon Steel Falcon driven by Larkham for the entire 2002 V8 Supercar season.
For the Queensland 500 and Bathurst 1000, Larkham was joined by a young emerging open wheeler driver, Will Power as co-driver.
Of course, Power has gone on to achieve great things in the IndyCar Series in the United States with the famous Team Penske and was due to return to the Team Steel fold for the 2011 Armor All Gold Coast 600 until the terrible IndyCar finale incident in Las Vegas.
For 2003, this car became the #20 Orrcon Steel car of Jason Bargwanna when he joined the team and it expanded to two cars.
‘Bargs’ drove M-TEK 004 for the first part of the ’03 season prior to debuting a brand new BA model Falcon at Oran Park.
This car was continued to be used however, and was driven by Western Australians Grant Johnson (later to become two-time V8 Utes Series champion) and Kerry Wade at the Sandown and Bathurst enduros.
It reverted back to Larkham’s hands for the rest of the year and he drove his last race as a full-time driver at the season finale at Eastern Creek.
The car was then used as a pit stop practice car by the Orrcon Steel team after having parts from it used in the construction of the team’s BA Falcons, before Fujitsu Series driver Shannon O’Brien purchased it as part of the sale of all Larkham Motorsport equipment when the team merged with WPS Racing for the 2006 season.
It was never raced during this time as O’Brien used the ex-Larkham/Orrcon Steel BA Falcons in the development series and it was then placed up for sale from sitting at the Stone Brothers Racing workshop.
Melbourne-based collector Troy Stapleton – who also owns and has raced an ex-Barbagallo VL Walkinshaw Group A Commodore – purchased the car in July 2010 and SBR dropped it off to him on their way to the L&H 500 at Phillip Island last year.
It still sits in its Orrcon Steel 2003 livery – minus engine – with the intent to eventually restore it and run it on-track.
Orrcon Steel Race Years:
2002 (Mark Larkham)
2003 (Jason Bargwanna, Mark Larkham, Grant Johnson/Kerry Wade – enduros)
Orrcon Steel Bathurst 1000 Years:
2002 (Larkham/Power – 18th)
2003 (Johnson/Wade – 18th)
M-TEK 005 – Ford Falcon BA
This car was the first of the BA model Falcons built by Larkham Motorsport and made its racing debut at Oran Park in 2003 as the #20 Orrcon Steel Falcon of Jason Bargwanna.
Bargwanna drove it for the rest of the ‘03 season, though the car was re-numbered to #10 for the Sandown and Bathurst endurance races where team boss Mark Larkham co-drove with him.
The duo finished ninth at Sandown and retired at Bathurst with engine problems before Bargwanna finished the year strongly with fifth at Pukekohe in New Zealand and again at the season final at Eastern Creek.
Bargwanna retained the use of this car in 2004 but took over the #10 after the retirement from driving of team boss Larkham.
‘Bargs’ drove it all season and was joined at Sandown and Bathurst by Mark Winterbottom. The duo ran strongly and finished sixth at Sandown and fifth at Mount Panorama.
It remained as the #20 car for the rest of the season with Bargwanna, who finished on the podium at the Gold Coast, thus scoring Orrcon Steel’s first podium result in V8 Supercars.
M-TEK 005
Bargwanna finished third overall but did not get to physically stand on the podium after HRT’s Todd Kelly was excluded from finishing third in the second race due to a technical infringement.
The exclusion did not occur until after the completion of racing and the podium, thus robbing Bargwanna and Orrcon Steel from a moment of glory!
But nevertheless, it was still a great season for the team, with this car taking Bargwanna to eighth place in the championship in 2004.
It was his car again in 2005 and driven by the former Bathurst winner all season, again also being joined by Winterbottom for the endurance races.
Bargwanna racked up a milestone at Symmons Plains in Tasmania that year – celebrating his 100th V8 Supercars Championship event start with this car re-numbered #100 for the weekend.
The car was sold for the 2006 season and was driven both that year and in 2007 (when it finished 12th) in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series by Shannon O’Brien before it laid idle for a few years and was eventually on-sold to Melbourne Sports Sedan identity Bob Gill.
Gill has raced it recently in the Victorian Sports Sedan Series, still in the base Orrcon Steel colours that it’s most well known for.
Orrcon Steel Race Years:
2003 (Jason Bargwanna, Mark Larkham/Jason Bargwanna – enduros)
2004 (Jason Bargwanna, Jason Bargwanna/Mark Winterbottom – enduros)
2005 (Jason Bargwanna, Jason Bargwanna/Mark Winterbottom – enduros)
Orrcon Steel Bathurst 1000 Years:
2003 (Larkham/Bargwanna – DNF)
2004 (Bargwanna/Winterbottom – 5th)
2005 (Bargwanna/Winterbottom – DNF)
M-TEK 006 – Ford Falcon BA
This was the second BA Falcon built by Larkham Motorsport and the last car the team actually built. It was debuted by Mark Winterbottom as the #20 Orrcon Steel car in 2004 at the non-championship even at Albert Park and driven by the-then reigning Fujitsu Series champion in his first season full-time in the V8 Supercars Championship.
‘Frosty’ drove it all season, except for the Sandown and Bathurst endurance races, where team boss Mark Larkham and Kiwi international Matt Halliday drove it.
This year was Larkham’s very last after retiring from full-time driving at the end of the previous year, with a creditable 11th place at Bathurst in his farewell to V8 Supercar racing as a driver.
M-TEK 006
Winterbottom finished out the season in the car and retained it for 2005 – still as the #20 Orrcon Steel machine – and again ran it for the full season bar the enduros where Swiss touring car ace Alain Menu and Halliday shared it as the #10 car (the team swapped numbers between their entries in a bid to boost the #20 points to ensure it qualified for upcoming events where grid numbers were limited).
This car was at the centre of a major scare for Winterbottom at the first – and only – event in Shanghai, China earlier in the year. He hit a dislodged grate on the edge of the track, which tore a hole through the floor of the car and very easily could have caused serious injury. Thankfully it did not and the car was repaired and returned to service!
The car was sold to Fujitsu Series driver Shannon O’Brien for 2006 and was kept as a spare before being leased to Paul Cruickshank Racing for Marcus Marshall to drive from the Gold Coast onwards as the #20 Glenfords car.
It then became the #77 Ford Rising Stars car in the 2007 Fujitsu Series and was used by Grant Denyer in the early rounds of the season before being sold to privateer Terry Wyhoon who re-appeared with it at the Bathurst Fujitsu Series round in 2008.
Young Victorian Ben McCashney drove it in the 2009 Fujitsu Series before owner Wyhoon stepped back into it to compete in last year’s V8 Touring Cars Series – which runs on the CAMS Shannons Nationals bill and is a category featuring de-registered V8 Supercars.
Wyhoon’s Image Racing continues to run the car in the V8 Touring Car Series this year with Michael Hector driving.
Orrcon Steel Race Years:
2004 (Mark Winterbottom, Mark Larkham/Matt Halliday – enduros)
2005 (Mark Winterbottom, Alain Menu/Matt Halliday – enduros)
Orrcon Steel Bathurst 1000 Years:
2004 (Larkham/Halliday – 11th)
2005 (Menu/Halliday – 12th)
00MS-016 – Ford Falcon BA
Originally built by 00 Motorsport in 2003, this BA Falcon would see some racing during that season before the team closed down and it was then used by WPS Racing in 2004 and 2005.
00MS-016
For 2006, WPS Racing and Larkham Motorsport merged, with Orrcon Steel taking the position on the front bumpers of the pair of black and silver cars driven by Brazilian Max Wilson and Jason Bargwanna.
This car was the #8 Falcon driven by Wilson in 2006 and was driven by the former Williams F1 test driver for the season. He survived a major rollover at Oran Park in Sydney and was then joined by David Besnard for the Sandown and Bathurst endurance races.
Wilson drove it for the rest of the season, except for the season final at Phillip Island where he and Bargwanna swapped cars for the weekend and this car therefore became the #10 car.
With Orrcon Steel moving onto Ford Performance Racing for 2007, this car was again used by Wilson updated to BF specification and in 2008 the team closed down.
Its cars, including this one, were sold off and this car has never raced again.
Orrcon Steel Race Years:
2006 (Max Wilson, Jason Bargwanna, Max Wilson/David Besnard – enduros)
Orrcon Steel Bathurst 1000 Years:
2006 (Wilson/Besnard – 14th)
00MS-017 – Ford Falcon BA
Also originally built by 00 Motorsport in 2003, this BA Falcon was used for a brief part of that season before the team closed down and its equipment was sold to WPS Racing used by that team in 2004 and 2005.
00MS-017
Larkham Motorsport and WPS Racing merged in 2006 with Orrcon Steel taking up place on the front bumpers of the team’s two cars.
This car was Jason Bargwanna’s #10 Falcon all season with Kiwi Craig Baird co-driving with him at Sandown (where they finished a strong seventh from fifth on the grid) and Bathurst, where they finished in the top 10.
However, Bargwanna and teammate Max Wilson swapped cars for the final round at Phillip Island, so this car became Wilson’s #8 car in a one-off arrangement.
Orrcon Steel moved on to Ford Performance Racing for 2007 and this car was again used by Bargwanna (updated to BF specification) for that season with Grant Denyer driving alongside Michael Caruso in it at Bathurst.
The team closed down and this car was sold off and never raced in V8 Supercars again.
Orrcon Steel Race Years:
2006 (Jason Bargwanna, Max Wilson, Jason Bargwanna/Craig Baird – enduros)
Orrcon Steel Bathurst 1000 Years:
2006 (Bargwanna/Baird – 10th)
FPR 503 – Ford Falcon BF
This car was the first Orrcon Steel Falcon at Ford Performance Racing when the two joined forces in 2007.
FPR-503
It had been used in 2006 by Mark Winterbottom and won the Sandown 500 in CAT colours with he and Jason Bright before becoming the #5 Orrcon Steel car for ‘Frosty’ in ’07.
A BF model Falcon, Winterbottom drove it for the entire season bar Bathurst. He used it to take four pole positions during the year – including the Sandown 500, where he shared the car with Kiwi Matt Halliday – and claim his first-ever Pole Position Award in V8 Supercars.
Halliday and Owen Kelly drove the car in Orrcon Steel colours at Bathurst, though with a unique Ford Cobra GT pinstripe white and blue livery, before handing it back to Winterbottom to finish off the season – still in the same Cobra livery.
He used the car to win the Bahrain round that November with two race wins from three – and thus take Orrcon Steel’s first round win in V8 Supercars – and finish fifth in the championship.
This car became a spare for Ford Performance Racing in 2008 but was used in Castrol colours by Steve Richards after a major crash at Eastern Creek wrote off his newer car.
FPR 503 became the #5 Orrcon Steel car again for the endurance races at Phillip Island and Bathurst with Dean Canto and Luke Youlden sharing the driving.
Richards used it for the rest of the season before it was sold to Matthew White and won the 2009 Fujitsu Series in the hands of Jonathon Webb.
In 2011, the car continues to race in the Fujitsu Series as the #27 Team Jayco Falcon driven by last year’s Fujitsu Series runner-up Tim Blanchard.
Orrcon Steel Race Years:
2007 (Mark Winterbottom, Matt Halliday/Owen Kelly – enduros)
2008 (Dean Canto/Luke Youlden – enduros)
Orrcon Steel Bathurst 1000 Years:
2007 (Halliday/O.Kelly – 13th)
2008 (Canto/Youlden – 7th)
FPR 604 – Ford Falcon BF
This car had an all-too brief appearance in Orrcon Steel colours at Ford Performance Racing, however it’s appearance at Bathurst in 2007 turned out to be incredibly memorable – but not for the right reasons!
Built new in 2007 for Steve Richards, it was driven by the two-time Bathurst winner all season in Castrol colours, however at Bathurst the team elected to pair he and Mark Winterbottom in the one car for their best shot at victory. The result was a striking #6 split livery with both Orrcon Steel and Castrol on the car, which Winterbottom took storming to pole position on the Saturday in the Top 10 Shootout, clocking a blistering 2m07.0908s lap in the one-lap dash.
He and Richards would go on to lead the most laps of any combination in the race on Sunday (74 of 161) and led with just laps to run.
But then, on lap 151 and in front of the chasing pack, Winterbottom encountered a wet road entering the high-speed ‘Chase’ on Conrod Straight and flew sideways off the circuit at top speed.
The #6 Falcon slid straight through the sand trap, emerged from the other side and then was sent airborne by the uneven turf beneath.
FPR-604
It crashed onto the ground, narrowly avoiding Craig Lowndes as it popped back out onto the bitumen, and ‘Frosty’ was left to pick up the pieces and get back up to speed, now in 12th place.
Amazingly, there was no damage to the car, though a clash with James Courtney in the Cutting bent a wheel rim and he was forced to pit to replace it.
A potential win had evaporated into a mere 10th place, and just 18 seconds behind winners Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.
The car returned to Richards’ hands in Castrol colours for the rest of 2007 and the first part of 2008 before it was written-off in a massive head-on accident at Eastern Creek.
So bad was the damage that the ‘jaws of life’ had to be used to remove the engine from the engine bay!
The leftovers of the car remain outside at the Ford Performance Racing workshop in Melbourne.
Orrcon Steel Race Years:
2007 (Mark Winterbottom/Steven Richards – Bathurst 1000)
Orrcon Steel Bathurst 1000 Years:
2007 (Winterbottom/Richards – 10th)
FPR 705 – Ford Falcon BF
This car was the #5 Orrcon Steel Falcon BF built new by Ford Performance Racing in 2008 for Mark Winterbottom to drive.
FPR-705
In his hands it proved to be a highly successful car, taking round wins at Queensland Raceway and Barbagallo, seven individual race wins and three pole positions across that year’s V8 Supercars Championship.
Driven by Winterbottom all season, this FPR 705 car morphed into the combined livery #6 Castrol/Orrcon car for the Phillip Island and Bathurst endurance races with Steven Richards co-driving with ‘Frosty’.
It was successful at both, claiming fourth place in both races, narrowly missing the podium on both occasions.
Winterbottom used the car for the remainder of the season, ultimately finishing second in the championship to Jamie Whincup. It remains his most successful season in the V8 Supercars Championship.
For 2009 it was sold off to Matthew White and was driven by Brad Lowe in the Fujitsu Series as well as a wildcard entry at the Phillip Island and Bathurst endurance races with Lowe and Damien Assaillit driving.
It became the #28 Jayco Falcon in the Fujitsu Series last year with David Russell using the car to win the Bathurst round of the series.
He again is driving the same car in the development category and will be on the grid in it at Bathurst this October, 2011.
Orrcon Steel Race Years:
2008 (Mark Winterbottom, Mark Winterbottom/Steven Richards – enduros)
Orrcon Steel Bathurst 1000 Years:
2008 (Winterbottom/Richards – 4th)
FPR 807 – Ford Falcon FG
This car was the #5 Orrcon Steel Falcon FG built new by Ford Performance Racing in 2009 when the new model Ford became eligible for the V8 Supercars Championship.
FPR-807
It was debuted by Mark Winterbottom at the Clipsal 500 that year and was driven by Winterbottom all season.
He was joined in the car – re-numbered as #6 – for the Phillip Island and Bathurst endurance races by Steven Richards and the duo took pole at the L&H 500 at Phillip Island and finished third before the car then was eliminated from Bathurst when it caught fire and was a retirement.
It was repaired and returned to ‘Frosty’s’ hands in time to win his first race of the season on the Gold Coast – FPR’s only win of the 2009 season – and finished fifth in the V8 Supercars Championship.
This car became a spare car for FPR in 2010 and returned to action for the second half of the season with Richards driving.
It became Will Davison’s car when joined FPR at the start of this year, before becoming a spare car when he debuted a new Falcon FG at Queensland Raceway.
Orrcon Steel Race Years:
2009 (Mark Winterbottom, Mark Winterbottom/Steven Richards – enduros)
Orrcon Steel Bathurst 1000 Years:
2009 (Winterbottom/Richards – DNF)
FPR 809 – Ford Falcon FG
This car was the #5 Orrcon Steel Falcon FG built new by Ford Performance Racing in 2010 and debuted by Mark Winterbottom at the opening event in Abu Dhabi with a pair of podium finishes.
FPR-809
It was driven by ‘Frosty’ all season, with his first race win of the season coming on the Sunday in Townsville.
He and Luke Youlden teamed up for the endurance races (the first year where V8 Supercars rules not did permit regular full-time drivers to ‘pair up’ together) and finished second at Phillip Island before Winterbottom took FPR 809 to his second career Bathurst 1000 pole.
A delaminated tyre with Youlden at the wheel dropped them to an eventual ninth placed finish, though the duo bounced back with a podium result on the Gold Coast a fortnight later.
Winterbottom took this car to another race win in Tasmania and finished third in the 2010 V8 Supercars Championship.
He again raced it in the early part of the 2011 season, having his last race in it at Queensland Raceway before he debuted his current car in the L&H 500 at Phillip Island.
It is now a spare chassis for Ford Performance Racing in their Melbourne workshop.
Orrcon Steel Race Years:
2010 (Mark Winterbottom, Mark Winterbottom/Luke Youlden – enduros)
2011 (Mark Winterbottom)
Orrcon Steel Bathurst 1000 Years:
2010 (Winterbottom/Youlden – 9th)
FPR 1111 – Ford Falcon FG
FPR-1111 - Blue Steel
This car is the newest Orrcon Steel Falcon on the V8 Supercars Championship grid and the latest built by Ford Performance Racing.
It was debuted by Mark Winterbottom as the #5 car at the L&H 500 at Phillip Island in 2011 with Steven Richards as co-driver and the duo also uses it at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
The car had success in just its third outing with Winterbottom joining with ‘super-sub’ – Northern Irishman, Richard Lyons to win the Sunday race of the Armor All Gold Coast 600. Lyons was called in as a last minute replacement for Toowoomba’s Will Power, who was ruled out of contention after an IndyCar crash in Las Vegas.
The FPR-1111 also took Frosty to victory on the closing round of the 2011 season, Sydney Telstra 500 and will steer Winterbottom into contention throughout the 2012 season.
Orrcon Steel Race Years:
2011 (Mark Winterbottom, Mark Winterbottom/Steve Richards – enduros, Mark Winterbottom/Richard Lyons – Gold Coast 600)
Orrcon Steel Bathurst 1000 Years:
2011 (Winterbottom/Richards – 4th)
