Opes Prime joins HSVDT, Toll stays.

The HSV Dealer Team has launched its lead car for the 2008 V8 Supercar Championship Series, in doing so revealing the identity of new major sponsor Opes Prime.

Heading into its fourth year of the V8 Supercar Championship, the team has lost its former joint naming rights sponsor, Toll Holdings, which has instead downgraded its sponsorship offerings in order to increase its support of the Holden Racing Team. This has presented the team with the opportunity to seek out new backers, with Opes Prime officially supporting Rick Kelly's car during the 2008 championship.

The company's executive director, Anthony Blumberg, revealed that the step up into the top level V8 Supercar category was a natural progression for the team, having supported Marcus Zukanovic in the 2007 Fujitsu Series.

"I am proud to be associated with a winning team and 2006 champion Rick Kelly in our first venture into the V8 Supercar Championship Series," he said, "Like the HSV Dealer Team, Opes Prime is a young venture with a winning team that aspires to achieve success over our opponents in our field of expertise.

"It was a natural progression for us to advance into the V8 Supercar 'main game' after our association with Marcus Zukanovic in the Fujitsu Series last year, which exposed the Opes Prime brand to the Australian public. We will continue to be associated with the Zukanovic team in 2008 and beyond as Marcus prepares to defend Holden's 2007 victory in the Fujitsu Series."

Kelly, meanwhile, will kick off his 2008 championship assault at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide, the event he conquered last year.

"I'm very excited about this season and the opportunities and challenges it will provide me with," Kelly admitted, "I have a new team-mate and new engineers which I have already developed strong relationships with. All of these new team members bring with them a wealth of experience, are extremely passionate about our goals and will play a key role in our 2008 V8 Supercar Championship campaign. We will have good consistency with running the same chassis at the start of the year, which should help us hit the ground running at Clipsal."

Kelly's new livery follows the same layout as the team's 2007 design, but has now combined a black and silver base with fluorescent orange highlights. Opes Prime signage is present where the competition number was previously placed.

The team's second car, to be piloted by new recruit Paul Dumbrell, will be unveiled next week, and is expected to feature prominent Autobarn sponsorship.