Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport has unveiled the look of its challenger for the 2011 V8 Supercars Championship.
To be driven by series returnee Warren Luff, the Gulf Western Oils Holden Commodore VE features a greater presence of black – a theme trending up and down pit lane as the teams begin to release their new schemes.
The livery has been penned by Designed by Holden’s Peter Hughes, featuring a darker, more aggressive design.
The new season marks LDM’s second year in the sport, keeping Gulf Western Oils on as its major sponsor.
The team will compete with the same Commodore VE chassis, but will have Rob Palermo on board as its race engineer – LDM’s first full-time engineer.
Dumbrell said that 2010 was a unique challenge which involved setting up a team from scratch, but with that ‘birthing phase’ behind them, he is looking forward to some stronger results in 2011.
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“It was a big job and we started way behind the eight ball time wise in 2010,” said Dumbrell.
“But I’m ambitious and this season is all about taking that next step and the first part of that puzzle is a new look for the Gulf Western Commodore.
“We’re lucky that we have a great sponsor in Gulf Western that helped us to get the team up and running and to have them and all the other sponsors back on board for another year is incredible.
“We’ve even forged a new relationship with Supercharge Batteries which is another fantastic acquisition for the team.
“We’re definitely looking to step it up a fair bit this year performance wise, we didn’t get the results we probably hoped for in 2010 but we were pretty competitive at times and we all learnt a lot.”
Luff, who drove with the Gulf Western Oils team in the final three rounds of the 2010 V8 season, is looking forward to the season ahead.
“I’m really rapt to be getting back in the car,” he said.
“We’ve been working pretty hard over the break so Saturday will be a great day for us to evaluate all the changes we’ve made to the car.
“Rob Palermo is a great acquisition for the team, having a full-time engineer is a better option for us and I’m really looking forward to developing a close working relationship with him.
“Our aim is to run in the top half of the field and given the size of our team and the level of the opposition that would be a great result for all of us.
“The new paintwork looks great, it’s very stealth like and menacing and I’m hoping that’s an indication of how the team will perform this year.”
The Gulf Western Oils Commodore VE will be on the track from the first time this weekend at Eastern Creek for V8 Supercars official test.
