Tulloch Motorsport’s Holden VE II NZV8 debuted at the first round of the South Island Endurance Race Series at Teretonga Park on the weekend.

Those in attendance were the first to see the brand new race car turning its wheels at a race track and it didn’t disappoint with many impressed by its debut appearance.

The team had been working round the clock to prepare the car for the event with it returning from the STM (Speedtech Motorsport) workshop in Wellington only one week prior, having been fitted with its Link engine management system, tuned and dyno tested.

With team owner Ian “Inky” Tulloch behind the wheel, the car entered the track for the first time in the Saturday morning qualifying session.  This short stint was used to “bed in” the brakes and test the car’s operating systems, leaving only a few short laps to run the car under pace.  Inky placed the VE II on the 5th row of the grid for the one hour endurance race and brought it home in a very impressive fourth place.

The car’s faultless performance has the team excited about its potential for the upcoming NZV8s championship season which commences at Teretonga Park in January 2013.

The next event for the team will be the one hour endurance race at Timaru International Motor Raceway in two weeks time (13 October), allowing for further fine-tuning.

“We’re extremely pleased with how the car performed over the weekend” stated team manager Chris Gauci, “it’s been an awesome project building this car and to see it out on the track doing the business is great.

Gauci went on to say, “This is the first outing for the car so without set up data, most of what we did in the way of suspension settings was pretty much theory, however with the information received we can now built on creating more speed.”

The new generation NZV8s championship has been opened up to allow any manufacturer to run their own V8 engine and body with the NZ-built space-framed chassis.  The Tulloch Motorsport NZV8 is the first Holden to be built but will soon be joined by NZV8s stalwart Nick Ross (also in a Holden) and the Richards Motorsport Toyota Camry, to be driven by Hamilton’s Martin Short.

The NZV8s championship series runs throughout the 2013 NZ summer and will visit the majority of race circuits throughout NZ – from Teretonga in Invercargill to Pukekohe, Auckland.  There will be two MotorSport NZ Gold Star Championships up for grabs – one for new generation NZV8 cars and one for the current models as seen in previous seasons.

For further information on the NZV8s programme please visit www.nzv8s.co.nz or like us on facebook – facebook.com/officialnzv8s