The journey of Super Black Racing took an exciting step today with Kiwi drivers Ant Pederson and Andre Heimgartner getting behind the wheel of the Ford Performance Racing prepared Falcon for the first time.
Super Black is the only extra team competing at Bathurst, joining the other 25 regular V8 Supercars Championship entries in the 'Great Race'.
The Winton Raceway was the venue for Super Black Racing today for driver testing, and already the team are getting excited about the challenge of the Bathurst 1000 only two weeks away.
"It's good that we're doing it properly" Says Pedersen.
"We want to go to the mountain and finish the race. This preparation prior to the event is good and it's getting us ready to go there and give it a crack".
Dry and warm conditions ensured plenty of running with both drivers getting plenty of laps to learn the car and work with the team.
"We just need to keep ticking the boxes and make sure we prepare as well as we can".
The car Super Black are running is a FG Ford that has been prepared as a fifth car by Ford Performance Racing, essentially the same as the one peddled by Mark Winterbottom to victory at last year's race at Mount Panorama.
Kiwi Super Black Racing drivers Ant Pedersen and Andre Heimgartner
The race day strategies for Bathurst were worked on including pit stops and driver changes.
Heimgartner has previously entered in the 2013 Bathurst 12 hour race so the team are not without recent experience on the mountain circuit.
With less than two weeks to go until the Super Black debut at the Bathurst 1000, preparation is now in full swing to ensure a credible race that does the New Zealand motorsport legacy proud.
The Bathurst 1000 takes place over the weekend of October 9-12.