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 Holden’s award-winning VE Commodore makes its on-track debut at this week’s V8 Supercar opening round, the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.
Ten VE Commodores will take to the grid, with the official factory team, the Holden Racing Team (HRT), last year’s championship-winning team, the TOLL/HSV Dealer Team and rising stars, Tasman Motorsport all fielding two new cars, while Jack Daniel’s Racing (JDR), Garry Rogers Motorsport (GRM), Supercheap Auto Racing (SCAR) and Paul Morris Motorsport (PMM) will all field one VE each alongside older VZ Commodores.
All Melbourne-based teams, bar SCAR, took part in a two-day test session at Winton Motor Raceway, near Benalla in country Victoria, last week, while Gold Coast-based Paul Morris tested his new car at Queensland Raceway on Friday.
The V8 Supercar version of the Wheels Car Of The Year is the result of an 18-month collaboration between Holden’s Motorsport department, the Holden Racing Team and all other factory-supported teams, and TEGA.
Holden’s Motorsport Manager, Simon McNamara, said the VE Commodore race debut in Adelaide was a significant moment in the company’s racing history.
“Holden has a long and rich history in supporting motorsport in Australia and the competition debut of the VE Commodore is a proud moment for us,” Simon McNamara, Holden Motorsport Manager said.
“All of our teams have worked tirelessly to get to this point and we believe the ‘bar’ in terms of design, construction and track presence has now been significantly raised by our new car.
“The VE Commodore has big shoes to fill when considered alongside Holden’s motorsport classics such as the Monaro, V8 Toranas, and past Commodores, but we are confident that it will happily sit in that company.”
Reigning V8 Supercar Champion, Rick Kelly says initial testing of the new car has gone to plan, while he does not feel more pressure with his VE Commodore wearing the coveted champion’s #1.
“Going from the old platform to the new VE Commodore is a big change and one we have to get used to, but the new car does feel quite good and it is reacting similarly to our championshipwinning car and that’s a positive,” Kelly said.
“With a bit of luck we can pick up where we left off last year. There’s consistency within our team as we haven’t had any movement, so that gives you a fair bit of confidence and relieves the pressures knowing what an outstanding job they did last year.”
Five-time series champion and HRT owner, Mark Skaife said he was looking forward to the challenge presented by the new car.
“New cars always present challenges and the VE Commodore will be no different,” Skaife said.
“After testing our new cars at Winton, we have found them to be different in some ways, but similar in others. Our speed in ’06 was exceptional and we are looking to build on that with greater reliability with the move to the new car. Adelaide’s always tough first up, but on first looks of the VE Commodore, Holden fans should be in for a good season.”
Skaife’s HRT team-mate, Todd Kelly said while the team had tested its VEs, practice and qualifying in Adelaide will be a more appropriate gauge of the new car’s performance.
“Adelaide is one big unknown; I only had a single day of testing at Winton and was in semishakedown mode, so it’s really difficult to predict where our cars are at from a competitive standpoint,” Kelly said.
“At Winton it’s difficult to gauge the aerodynamic factors as you never get into top gear, and being 4-5km/h faster or slower than previous can make a heck of a difference when you go racing at Adelaide.
“I guess we won’t know until qualifying, but last year we showed plenty of pace and we haven’t built the new car to go slower, so we’re upbeat about our chances.”
Four-time Bathurst champion Greg Murphy, who this year moves to Tasman Motorsport after two years with SCAR to drive alongside Jason Richards, said he felt noticeable differences with the new car.
“The Tasman Motorsport VE Commodore is definitely a significant change in comparison to what I’ve been used to, probably more so because it is the first new car I’ve had in over five years,” Murphy said.
“We spent most of our day testing sorting issues, and it was very much a shakedown session so we didn’t really ‘get into it’ as such, but the car did respond to the few changes we were able to make and that’s an encouraging sign.
“What has impressed me is the incredible job Tasman Motorsport has done to be able to get two new cars ready in the time we’ve had [in the off-season], and everyone behind the scenes needs to be congratulated for their efforts.”
In addition to the new car, the opening round of the 2007 season also sees an entirely new look for the Bathurst-winning GRM team, with former V8 Development Series winner Dean Canto saying the team’s renown reliability had not been a trade-off for the stunning new livery.
“Our new look GRM Commodores are nothing short of awesome with plenty of positive comment coming in on the new livery,” Canto said.
“For GRM, reliability has never really been an issue and although we struggled with some issues with our VE on test day, we also found some answers and that gives us confidence to look for a top 10 finish at Clipsal.”
While his Jack Daniel’s Racing team-mate and fellow rookie Shane Price will be at the wheel of a new VE, 21-year-old Jack Perkins will drive a proven VZ Commodore from the Perkins Engineering stable for his first Clipsal 500 start.
And while most of the grid will be eyeing an Adelaide victory, the third-generation racer said this weekend is all about gaining experience and targeting a finish for both he and Price.
“The whole object of the exercise is to win races, realistically we know we won’t be doing that early in the piece, but eventually that’s what it is all about,” Perkins said.
“Both of our Jack Daniel’s Commodores are fast as we found out at Winton testing, and the Perkins Engineering team have done a ripper job over summer, so it’s up to Shane and me to do the best job we can.
“We would like to be genuine contenders in the top 10-20 early in the year and make it into the top five-10 by year’s end.”
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