No Bathurst 1000 wildcard for WAU

The Ford Supercars squad had been toying with the idea of a third entry for the Great Race this year.

Plans for the additional entry started when the team retained long-time co-driver Warren Luff in its line-up, despite signing Lee Holdsworth and Fabian Coulthard as co-drivers for its regular entries.

As revealed by Motorsport.com, Simona de Silvestro was also part of the wildcard plans and considered the favourite to partner Luff had the programme gone ahead.

However the team has now confirmed that it won't pursue plans for the wildcard anymore due to the high Gen3 running costs.

Luff will continue with the team in his role as a driver advisor for the Super2 programme for Ryan Wood and Zach Bates.

He is also set to be on the Sandown and Bathurst grids elsewhere with a Team 18 deal to be announced imminently.

“We were really keen to run a wildcard entry this year at Sandown and Bathurst, but ultimately, with all that has occurred with Gen3 and the costs associated, it unfortunately wasn’t feasible," said WAU team principal Bruce Stewart.

“As soon as we made the decision not to progress, our first priority was ensuring that Luffy was on the grid this year, because it’s where he belongs.

“It’s disappointing not to bring it to life; Luffy was retained with us for a reason, but it’s something no doubt we will look to do in the future.”

Chaz Mostert/Holdsworth and Nick Percat/Coulthard will make up the WAU pairings for the long-distance races.