Holden unveils V8 Supercar

Holden Racing Team drivers Garth Tander and James Courtney took the covers off the new Commodore that will spearhead their 2013 V8 Supercar championship.

Both drivers are hoping for a reversal of fortunes after the team’s first winless season in 20 years; HRT has not won a championship in 10 years.

“We’ve hit the reset button,” says Tander, who last won Bathurst two years ago, and a championship in 2007 for another Holden team. “The new Car of the Future rules means new opportunities.”

This year will mark the arrival of two new manufacturers – Nissan and Mercedes-Benz – thanks to revised reglations that allow teams to fit any sedan body over common underpinnings. Everything except the V8 engines are standardized across all teams this year.

“I think we’re in with a great shot, testing has been going really well,” said Courtney, who is yet to win at Bathurst but won a championship while driving for Ford in 2010. “I think the shake-up we had last year has really prepared us for this year.”

HRT tested the new VF Commodore V8 Supercar today at Calder Park Raceway on the outskirts of Melbourne, before loading the car onto a truck for the official unveiling inside the lobby of Holden’s Port Melbourne head office.

Holden repeated its commitment to V8 Supercars after speculation about the future of the company’s role with the road-going Commodore likely shifts to front-wheel-drive in 2017.

The new rules would allow Holden to race any sedan body, regardless of the road car’s mechanicals, just as Nissan has done with its V6 front-drive Altima, which will be unveiled in Melbourne tomorrow.

“HRT has been a mainstay of Australian motorsport and will continue to be a mainstay of Australian motorsport,” Tander said.

Both drivers are looking forward to getting behind the wheel of their new V8 Supercar at next Saturday’s pre-season test at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway, which is open to the public. But they’re more focused on the opening round, Adelaide’s Clipsal 500 in three weeks.

“We’ve had a fantastic off-season and we’re ready to get on the track and size up against the competition,” says Tander. “Adelaide has always been strong for Holden and HRT. It’s an important race for us. It’s the start of the season and, with the new rules, we’re all going into it with more unknowns than any season before.”

Despite Holden's flagship team HRT being overshadowed by the performance of Triple 8 Racing, which switched from Ford to Holden in 2010, the Commodore has had an unbeatable racing record since Peter Brock drove the first one to championship and Bathurst victory in 1980.

Of Holden's 29 Bathurst wins, 22 were with the Commodore; the VE model has won the last four Bathurst 1000 races and was the first car in Australian motorsport history to win 100 championship races.

This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling