Stoddart joins V8 Supercars.

Outgoing Minardi F1 team boss Paul Stoddart has joined the Australian V8 Supercar Series as a team sponsor with branding on Greg Ritter's Ford Performance Racing Falcon for his OzJet airline.

The tie-up will see Ritter's FPR Falcon with prominent OzJet branding for this coming weekend's Bathurst 1000km where Ritter shares the car with Cameron McLean, and for the rest of the V8 Supercar season.

"Despite having spent most of my time outside Australia in the past 20 years I have always been a keen observer of the Australian racing scene and have noted the enormous growth of V8 Supercars in recent years," says Stoddart, who recently sold the Minardi team to Red Bull. "Like lots of people in the F1 Paddock, I've been an avid watcher of the V8 Supercars at Albert Park during the Australian GP.

"I did a bit of production saloon racing in Oz in the late 1970s, but my most vivid recollections of that era are of seeing Allan Moffat and Peter Brock racing each other at Bathurst.

"I'm thrilled that this new association between OzJet and Ford Performance Racing will kick off at that famous venue and then extend to the final three rounds of the V8 Supercar series."

OzJet will be an all-business airline flying initially between Melbourne and Sydney, and Stoddart is planning to make use of one of his jets to travel to the Gold Coast for the Sufers' Paradise round of the V8s.

The Prodrive run team is happy to have Stoddart on board. "FPR is absolutely thrilled to welcome OzJet to the team, and to have OzJet founder and Formula One stalwart Paul Stoddart as our team ambassador at Indy if his hectic schedule allows," says FPR commercial director Rod Barrett. "With OzJet launching in Australia soon and FPR experiencing its current resurgence the two of us can take-off together!"