Who'll replace departing Vodafone?

Way back in 2006, an interesting rumour did the rounds in the V8 Supercar paddock.

Triple Eight Race Engineering was backed by a failing whitegoods chain called Betta Electrical, which had spent the majority of the year financially eroding away. Right before that year's Bathurst 1000, Betta finally went into administration.

Nobody was particularly worried about the future of Triple Eight (or Team Betta Electrical, as it was known at the time). It was odds-on favourite to win Bathurst (which Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup duly did), and Lowndes was embroiled in a heated championship battle with Rick Kelly. With fast cars and the most recognisable face in Australian motorsport at its disposal, finding a new sponsor for 2007 was going to be a doddle.

But, according to folklore, the team's boss Roland Dane had another idea. Along with T8 co-founder Peter Butterly, he (apparently) tried to buy Betta Electrical. It was an outrageous situation. Sure, sponsors have bought race teams before, but here was a race team attempting to buy a sponsor.

Obviously, the deal (if there ever was one) never went through. Some said it was because of confusion regarding Betta's leases and real estate, while some said the Vodafone money was just too irresistible. The truth never really emerged.

Triple Eight's previous V8 backer, Betta Electrical, left at the end of '06 © LAT

To be fair, confirmation that any of that even happened never really emerged. It was just a rumour, nothing more.

I was reminded of this story when the news broke that Vodafone will cancel all of its Australian sporting sponsorship programmes at the end of 2012. After six years, three championships and three Bathurst wins, Team Vodafone will be no more, and a new chapter of Triple Eight history will start. Just like it did at the end of 2006.

The moral of the anecdote about Betta Electrical isn't that Dane might try to buy Vodafone. The moral is this: for most V8 teams, even powerhouses like Ford Performance Racing or the Holden Racing Team, losing a major backer would cause headaches - particularly during these cloudy economic times. But, as the Betta yarn proves, T8 isn't most teams.

The way it goes about strategising its commercial arrangements is unlike any other sporting team in Australia. This will be seen as an exciting opportunity, not a potentially insurmountable challenge.

Triple Eight has always had a gift when it comes to servicing sponsors. For that reason, I refuse to believe that the Vodafone news has come as a surprise to Dane. Someone would have tipped him off that the decision was coming, and my guess is that he's well down the line on securing a new sponsor. In fact, I'd bet that Triple Eight will find it much easier to replace Vodafone than the Australian test cricket team, which has also lost its Vodafone support.

Shane Warne and his cricket mates are off the Vodafone ticket too © LAT

I wouldn't even be surprised if a new deal is already done. Monster Energy has been strengthening its ties with T8 over the past 18 months or so, growing a helmet deal with Whincup into the title sponsorship of the T8-run Commodore that Scott Pye races in the V8 Supercar development series. If there were a betting market for such a thing, seeing Lowndes and Whincup in Monster Commodores next season would be close to evens.

If nothing else, T8 has no reason to suffer from hurt feelings in the wake of the announcement. Given that the team has constantly raised and re-raised the bar when it comes to efficiency, presentation, professionalism and performance over the past six years, there is no way that Vodafone will be leaving because it feels the team isn't worthy of sporting its decals. That the Aussie cricketers will also be without a sponsor simply proves beyond doubt that this whole situation is part of a bigger financial picture at Vodafone, nothing more. That's just one more reason why T8 is going to have no trouble filling the vacancy.

In saying all of that, Vodafone's involvement with V8 Supercars has been a very good thing for the sport. Unlike the majority of V8 sponsors, Vodafone has genuinely worked to leverage its involvement both on and off the track. For example, over the past six years we've seen a spoof campaign for a new fragrance called Eau de Engine (why smell like a man when you can smell like a V8?), a giant rubber duck race in Sydney Harbour, and an amusing TV commercial in which Lowndes tries to palm off his shoe-destroying dog 'Crackles'.

Monster backs Triple Eight's Scott Pye in the second-tier V8 series already. Could it go a step further next year?

And that's not even mentioning the stunning (and expensive) motorsport crossovers that Vodafone organised with McLaren, which started with Whincup and Jenson Button swapping cars at Albert Park, and ended with Button and Lowndes swapping steeds at Bathurst. The result of the Bathurst swap was Button setting what is unofficially the fastest-ever lap around Mount Panorama - in the McLaren, of course. His benchmark - a 1m48.88s, in case you were wondering - will probably never be beaten.

But despite the good having Vodafone in V8s has done, the mourning period will be short. There are very few cases where a major sponsor leaving a sport is seen as an exciting thing, but this is an exception. I'm genuinely excited to see what Triple Eight comes up with next.

Watch this space.