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Super Black Racing ready to take on V8 Supercars

21 January, 2015

Super Black Racing — the only New Zealand-based V8 Supercars team — has teamed up with Prodrive Racing Australia (PRA) heading into the 2015 V8 Supercars Championship, with the team’s debut at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, held between February 26 and March 1, 2015.

Following their successful debut at last year’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, with support from PRA, the decision to continue with PRA’s technical support and services was a no-brainer.

The Wellsford-based team has recently signed 19-year-old Andre Heimgartner to race their PRA Ford Falcon in the 2015 season. At 19, he is one of the youngest ever drivers to race in V8 Supercars.

“I just can’t wait to start racing! The team at PRA are amazing to work with and I’m sure I’ll soak up a lot of information from them, which will be a huge help for us,” he said of the opportunity.  

Australian fans, as well as PRA, have displayed positive reactions towards Super Black Racing. Team owner Tony Lentino says, “We have been blown away from the amount of support we’ve received from all around the world, including our Australian fans … although we are convinced that the friendly New Zealand/Australia banter will be greater than ever.”

To highlight just how serious they are, Super Black Racing has also enlisted the support of legendary racing star Paul Radisich as team principal. Radisich has extensive experience behind the wheel, including winning the Touring Car World Cup in 1993 and 1994.

“I know my V8 experience can and will be put to the best use,” he says of being team principal.

With a New Zealand team to get behind, the 2015 V8 Supercars season is already set to be a good one, and it hasn’t even started.

NZ Classic Car magazine, March/April 2025 issue 398, on sale now

23 February, 2025

An HQ to die for
Mention the acronym HQ and most people in the northern hemisphere will assume this is an abbreviation for Head Quarters. However, for those born before the mid-’80s in Australia and New Zealand, the same two letters only mean one thing – HQ Holden!
Christchurch enthusiast Ed Beattie has a beautiful collection of Holden and Chevrolet cars. He loves the bowtie and its Aussie cousin and has a stable of beautiful, powerful cars. His collection includes everything from a modern GTSR W507 HSV through the decades to a 1960s Camaro muscle car and much in between.
In the last two Holden Nationals (run biennially in 2021 and 2023), Ed won trophies for the Best Monaro and Best Decade with his amazing 1972 Holden Monaro GTS 350 with manual transmission.
Ed is a perfectionist and loves his cars to reflect precisely how they were on ‘Day 1,’ meaning when the dealer released them to the first customer, including any extras the dealer may have added or changed.

You’re the one that I want – 1973 Datsun 240K GT

21 February, 2025

In the early 1970s, Clark Caldow was a young sales rep travelling the North Island and doing big miles annually. He loved driving. In 1975 the firm he worked for asked Clark what he wanted for his new car, and Clark chose a brand-new Datsun 240K GT. The two-door car arrived, and Clark was smitten, or in his own words, he was “pole vaulting.”
Clark drove it all over the country, racking up thousands of miles. “It had quite a bit of pep with its SOHC 128 hp (96kW) of power mated to a four-speed manual gearbox,” he says. Weighing in at 1240kg meant the power to weight ratio was good for the time and its length at almost 4.5 metres meant it had good street presence.
Clark has been a car enthusiast all his life, and decided around nine years ago to look for one of these coupes. By sheer luck he very quickly found a mint example refurbished by an aircraft engineer, but it was in Perth.