AFTER much discussion and planning, the inaugural Kumho Tyres V8 Touring Car Heritage round will be conducted at the Shannons Nationals round at Wakefield Park on October 12-14.

Since it began in 2008, the Kumho V8 Touring Car Series for de-registered V8 Supercars has filled a huge gap, with older cars from the Dunlop Development Series given somewhere to race.

However four years on, the original cars competing in the V8 Touring Car series are now less competitive, so the Heritage round should suffice in a enjoyable and less competitive environment.

It is now time to find a place to race our older model V8 Touring Cars in an enjoyable and less competitive environment, so the Heritage round will comfortably fill this gap.

The racing will be ‘spirited’ and drivers will have a lot of fun, but it is essential to make sure that none of the cars are damaged, and that everyone finishes the weekend safely.

The success of the inaugural round and feedback from competitors will determine a direction for the future.

The Heritage cars are the older models, including Holden VP, VR, VS, VT up to the VX and Ford AU, EB, EF and EL.

Given the success of the inaugural Heritage round at Wakefield Park, the direction the heritage cars take will then be determined, possibly three or four separate rounds throughout 2013.

Bathurst’s Steve Ingwerson, one of the driving forces behind the Heritage round, said he floated the idea of having a Heritage round some time back and it’s just gone ahead from there.

“It should create a lot of interest with the cars back in their original colour schemes so people can recognise them for what they are. It should be really nostalgic to see them all back on track again.

“We’re lucky that we’ve got Aaron Noonan on board, doing PR and helping to source old cars,” Ingwersen said. “There are still lots of cars just sitting around doing nothing.

Ingwersen owns the 1998 Holden Commodore VT originally raced by Larry Perkins and Russell Ingall. It was later raced by John Cotter and Peter Doulman in Gatorade livery, but Ingwersen has now restored it to its original red and green Castrol colours as run by the Perkins team in ’98.

During the ’99 season Perkins changed it for a special promotion with Castrol when it was a one-off silver with Castrol SLX livery.

“There is a lot of interest being shown in the Heritage round. There’s a couple of HRT VS’s, Leigh Moran from Queensland has an ex DJR Shell Falcon, Robert Hones has a RE Car VS, Michael Campbell has also got an ex Perkins Commodore in Castrol livery.