In early 1977, Motorsport New Zealand announced there would be some major upheavals taking place within the New Zealand ShellSport Saloon Car championship, in which an engine cap of 2,000cc would be introduced. As popular as the big-banger V8s and screaming quad-cam V6s were with the punters, car numbers since the early ‘70s had been a problem, and there was a heavy reliance on international teams bolstering the grids. The 1976/77 Saloon Car Championship had just two cars which entered every round, in Jack Nazers Victor Chevy, and Bill Leckie’s V8 Capri. There was a fuel crisis happening, fuel restrictions, and these cars had become too expensive to build and maintain, and there was a dwindling number of people prepared or able to make the commitment to them.
Shell Oil continued their support through their ShellSport brand which had been in place since the 1976 season, but almost everything else about the 1978 ShellSport series would be different to what had gone before, including the drivers competing at the head of the field. There was a maximum engine size limit of 2,000cc, but there would also be a complicated sliding scale allowing the smaller capacity cars to run lighter than those nearing the maximum limit.