With just a couple of days before the 2015 V8 Supercars Championship season officially kicks off with this weekend's pre-season test at Sydney Motorsport Park, many teams have used today to showcase new sponsorship deals and livery schemes they will be running for the upcoming season.
The Walkinshaw Racing stable kicked off proceedings by unveiling a revised colour scheme for Tim Slade's #47 Super Cheap Auto Racing Holden. The coming season will mark the auto retail chain's fourth year with TWR and its second with Slade on board.
Slade – who remains winless after six seasons in the top flight – is hopeful that the updated look could be a catalyst to get him to the top step of the podium after a torrid 2014 campaign that saw him ranked a lowly 17th in the Drivers' Championship standings.
"We finished off last year relatively well, so I'm looking forward to hitting the ground running and getting some solid results straight up for 2015.
"There would be no better way to start the year if I can do that at my home event, the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide; I'd be a very happy boy, indeed," he said.
With the factory Holdens of James Courtney and Garth Tander running an interim test livery ahead of what is anticipated to be a commemorative colour scheme to mark 25 years of the Holden Racing Team, the TWR stable's fourth car being run by Charlie Schwerkolt Racing will also feature a new look, for the short term at least.
The #18 Holden being driven by Lee Holdsworth will carry significant branding from lubricants firm, Fuchs, which has agreed to support the team for this weekend's Sydney SuperTest and the first three rounds of the season – the company had previously sponsored Holdsworth's car when he drove with Erebus Motorsport last season.
The branding will cover the bonnet and front doors of his Commodore, while 'Leethal 18′ will be sported on the rear doors and guards until further backing is sourced. Also moving with Holdsworth from Erebus is Beko, the domestic appliance and electronics giant.
Lee Holdsworth's #18 CS Racing Holden will carry sponsorship from Fuchs for the first three rounds of the season.
"It's really exciting to have a passionate company with a strong history in motorsport like Fuchs on board as a partner of our team," license holder Charlie Schwerkolt said.
"It's three rounds at this stage, which will hopefully lead to an ongoing partnership through the season. [The sponsorship market] is extremely tough out there, but hopefully with some good results things will get easier," he added.
The tough sponsorship market is being felt by a number of teams, although the four-car Nissan Motorsport team had some good news today, announcing that the Japanese carmaker's motorsports arm, Nismo, would lend its colour scheme – and a bit of extra cash – to Michael Caruso's #10 Altima.
Michael Caruso will run in Nissan Nismo colours in 2015.
The manufacturer showed of Caruso's livery scheme at a photo shoot at Bathurst, where a similarly painted Nissan GT-R is tackling this weekend's Bathurst 12 Hour endurance race.
While Caruso will run with the Nismo colours for the entire season, the final looks for the sister entries of James Moffat and Todd Kelly are not yet known – they will run with Nissan Nismo and Nissan Academy colours respectively at this weekend's SuperTest. The fourth Altima of Rick Kelly will carry the backing of the team's long-time sponsor, Jack Daniel's, which today confirmed it was scaling back its investment to support a single car.