The worldwide boss of Ford, Jim Farley, has made a rapid-fire pre-Christmas go to to Melbourne.
It was his first journey to Australia since he grew to become chief government officer of the Ford Motor Firm in October 2020.
Mr Farley was accompanied on his tour of native services by the previous head of Ford Australia, Kay Hart, who’s now the president of Ford’s Worldwide Markets Group.
The worldwide head of Ford Efficiency, Mark Rushbrook, was additionally a member of the Farley occasion on certainly one of his semi-regular visits to Australia as head of the motorsport operation within the USA that features Supercars in Australia.
Mr Farley managed to mix work with some play, as he jumped behind the wheel of a Supercars racer for decent laps on the Calder Park monitor on the outskirts of Melbourne.
“Thank goodness we go racing,” Mr Farley mentioned.
His go to included time on the headquarters of Ford Australia, in addition to a visit to the remanufacturing facility at Mickleham the place RMA Automotive is switching the Ford F-150 pickup to right-hand drive.
Ford’s Nationwide Elements Distribution Centre, situated next-door to the F-150 facility, was one other cease.
He additionally did an all-staff City Corridor Assembly at Broadmeadows, the place Ford Australia nonetheless maintains an in depth analysis and improvement facility – together with a design studio – that works on a variety of worldwide tasks for Ford together with the Ranger pickup that’s then manufactured in Thailand.
Mr Farley’s time with Ford’s 5 Supercars groups included a catch-up with Dick Johnson, in addition to Ford Mustang racer Cam Waters, whom he had beforehand met when the pair have been doing particular person driver coaching periods within the UK.
His rapid-fire immersion at Ford Australia additionally included gamers from the Geelong Cats, the AFL soccer group sponsored by Ford, in addition to Ford prospects and homeowners of basic Falcons.
The Ford boss is a eager racer who owns a Ford GT40 basic sports activities automobile and a brand new Ford Mustang GT4, and had beforehand turned scorching laps within the USA in a Supercars’ Mustang shipped from Australia.
This time he rode alongside Mr Waters earlier than taking the wheel of the automobile, because it had raced to victory on the Adelaide 500 final month in a tribute livery to the late Ken Block and Monster Vitality. His early pace was restricted by soaking-wet monitor circumstances at Calder however he went progressively faster because the monitor dried.
“It is a dream come true for a CEO,” he mentioned.
“That was enjoyable. A lot extra enjoyable than the trendy race vehicles I’ve pushed. It’s all concerning the driver.
“On the fallacious facet of the automobile… ” Mr Farley laughed.
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