IT HAS taken three years, but Bathurst’s Steven Shiels is close to rolling out his latest toy to make its racing debut, a state of the art sports sedan – a Chev Camaro Z28.
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The local sports sedan stalwart started racing in the category three decades back with a Holden engine implanted into a Ford Escort and has supported it since in several cars.
Shiels plans to debut the Z28 at Goulburn’s Wakefield Park on August 28-29 in a 2010 CAMS NSW State Motor Racing Championship round where his is confident of a top five finish.
“We’ve just finished doing the corner weighting, the wheel alignment and dyno-tuning is next, so everything is on track to test at Wakefield Park on the 18th [August].
“If the test goes to plan, we’ll then go back to Wakefield for the state round, where I believe they are expecting 25 to 28 cars, and if we don’t finish in the top five I’d be disappointed,” Shiels said.
“Many hours have gone into building this car and we’re very proud of it. If it goes as well as it looks, it will be a winner.
“I’d really like to thank Blatch Smash Repairs and GH Sheetmetal for the magnificent job they did in fabricating the car,” Shiels added.
The Camaro boasts a 680 horsepower six litre Chev engine, six-speed Holinger gearbox, Ford nine inch rear end and with its full space frame and all fibreglass panels, tips the scales at 1068 kilograms.
After the upcoming Wakefield Park meeting, Shiels intends to compete in the remainder of the 2010 state rounds, ahead of a full assault on the 2011 NSW championship and NSW rounds of the Australian Sports Sedan Championship.
His long term goal is to claim the Australian title and all that starts next year when Shiels will go all out to win the state championship, which he has been close to winning previously.
His last sports sedan was a VL Holden Commodore, which he first raced in 2003, and in 2006 went close to winning the title.
In that season he won eight races and led the title chase for the first four of six rounds. Then at an Eastern Creek round he won all three races.
However, his championship charge came unstuck in the penultimate round at Oran Park when the Commodore suffered suspension failures and saw him drop to second.
The Commodore was sold the following year to make way for the Z8 which he starting building in 2007 and which should be much faster than its predecessor.
