It’s official. The Triple Eight team of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes will race a Holden in 2010.

Speculation had been growing that the British owned team would switch to the General Motors marque after Triple Eight was dropped from official Ford support earlier this year.

In a press conference held at Holden’s Port Melbourne headquarters this morning, the announcement was made that the championship team would be making the switch to Fords for 2010,

Holden Executive Director Sales, Marketing and Aftersales, Alan Batey  said that “Holden has a long and proud history in motorsport that stretches back over 40 years and today’s’s announcement is an exciting step into the next chapter.” “Our commitment and passion for motorsport has not wavered. Today we are making a clear statement on how much we value this sport which is also a very smart, responsible sponsorship decision.

“We are very excited about working with Team Vodafone and are thrilled to welcome back both Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup to the Holden family.”

“We are delighted to join the Holden family,” Team Vodafone Managing Director, Roland Dane said.

“Triple Eight Race Engineering started running with General Motors in the UK, winning

many races and Championships, and it was only an anomaly due to circumstances that we did not race Holdens when we began in V8 Supercars.” he said. “I have always wanted to put that right when the opportunity arose, which it now has.”

Dane said his association with GM was quite emotional.

“It is an emotive topic for Triple Eight and we feel that as we have ‘grown’ with GM that we should continue to ‘live’ together with them, here with Holden.”

Reigning V8 Supercar Champion Jamie Whincup said he was excited by the prospect of returning to Holden.

“Personally, I am very excited, I started my V8 Supercar career in Holden teams and didn’t quite get the results I wanted, so now I have the chance to rectify that.” Whincup said.

“Triple Eight is a cohesive and dedicated team and I am very confident that we can

continue to record similar results when we climb aboard our new Commodores to start the

2010 season.”

“I look forward to working with Holden and hope that we can shoot for further

championship success together.” said Whincup.

Lowndes, who started his career at Holden was the subject of a huge financial deal to race with Ford several years ago. However his contract with the company expires at the end of this year.

Whincup and Lowndes recently re-signed with Triple Eight who also announced the return of major team sponsor Vodafone.

Just what sort of reaction Lowndes and Whincup will receive from Ford fans when they hit the track this weekend at Sandown will be probably far more interesting than the race itself.