Holden will make one final appearance at Mount Panorama at the Bathurst 1000 on the 6th of October, marking the end of more than 50 years of racing.
The Aussie brand has taken 35 wins in the Bathurst 500/1000 races at the Mount, starting in 1968 with privateer Bruce McPhee at the wheel. Official factory support began a year later, defying parent company General Motors’ global ban of motor racing, with the Holden Dealer Team (HDT). The team was technically owned by dealers but the manufacturer funded the entire campaign.
The annual Bathurst 500, then an endurance race for production cars, was the Holden Dealer Team’s first test, pitting the three HDT Monaro GTS 350 coupes against the favoured Ford Falcon GTHOs. In a fairy-tale initiation, Colin Bond and Tony Roberts took a stunning victory with teammates Peter Brock and Des West third. The other team car was sixth.
Supplied
Colin Bond and Tony Roberts in action.
Brock went on to dominate the Mount Panorama circuit between 1972 and 1987, winning no fewer than nine times in various Holdens (three times with Kiwi Jim Richards in 1978, 1979 and 1980), including leading every lap of the 1979 race and setting a lap record on the final circuit.
READ MORE:
* The last-ever Holden V8 isn’t what you think it is
* Greg Murphy relieved he can still race at Bathurst 1000
* Spectacular Van Gisbergen gave Pukekohe perfect hurrah
* Home to New Zealand for Shane van Gisbergen after Bathurst win
In 1980, Brock became the owner of HDT, running the team successfully until 1987, when he started insisting on equipping cars with a pseudoscience device called the “Energy Polariser”. This used crystals and magnets in an epoxy resin that, it was claimed, improved the performance and handling of vehicles through “aligning the molecules”.
Supplied
Peter Brock driving his Torana in 1972, at the beginning of his reign over Bathurst.
Holden didn’t want to associate with the unscientific device and terminated the relationship, building the Holden Racing Team in replacement, a joint venture between Holden and entrepreneur Scotsman Tom Walkinshaw.
It was a difficult start with new rule changes, economic challenges and new turbo competition from Europe and Japan, but HRT’s Win Percy and Allan Grice managed to pull a win in the 1990 running of the Bathurst 1000.
After a few years in the wilderness, Brock returned to the Holden fold in 1994 in what was dubbed a marriage of convenience lubricated by sponsorship money and expediency. Brock couldn’t win that elusive 10th Bathurst classic, but he did land HRT’s first ever Australian Touring Car Championship round victory at Eastern Creek Raceway.
In 1994, Mark Skaife broke the lengthy Holden championship drought dating back to 1980, winning for Gibson Motorsport. Then in 1995, racer/engineer and Holden fan hero Larry Perkins, with co-driver Russell Ingall, delivered an almost impossible outcome in the Bathurst 1000, charging from last to victory.
The real glory period for HRT came in the late 1990s, with drivers like Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife collecting wins left, right and centre, not to mention Greg Murphy’s incredible ‘Lap of the Gods’ in 2003, setting up a win in a satellite Kmart Racing Commodore.
Supercars
New Zealand motorsport legends honoured at Bathurst.
Triple Eight Racing Engineering kicked off its time with Holden as a satellite team in 2010, finishing one-two at its first race with Commodores in Abu Dhabi. Factory status came in 2017, along with the first championship in V8 Supercars since 2002.
In the peak of the COVID pandemic, the Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodores rolled out at Bathurst 2020 for the very last time to represent the Holden factory team.
Over 50 years of Holden factory support came to an end that day, when Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes, Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander represented the icon brand one last time as full-time Holden factory race drivers.
Supplied
Holden pulled factory support in 2020, but this year is the last time the Commodore will race in anger.
As a tribute to the millions of Holden fans who watched the great race that year, a unique livery for the #888 and #97 ZB Commodore Supercars bore the #ThanksHoldenFans graphic in a respectful acknowledgement to the many supporters, drivers, engineers, dealers, commercial partners, marketers and everyone who helped make so many memories.
Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander prevailed for Holden that day, and in an emotional tribute to the much loved brand, SVG paused on Conrod during his victory lap to take a Holden Motorsport flag from passionate fan Dennis King. The iconic images of this incredible moment are now etched in Holden Motorsport history.
“It was a real team effort and a special way to say farewell to the Holden brand in Australia as a new car brand. To close it off this way had some real meaning for the fans and Holden ex-employees and dealers and everyone else who have put so much into Holden over the last 70 years, so I’m very happy that we’ve played a part in that” said Roland Dane Managing, director of Triple Eight Engineering at the time.
Supplied
Starting next year, the GM flag will be flown by the new Gen3 Chevrolet Camaro.
This year bore the emotional farewell of Pukekohe Park, with Shane van Gisbergen claiming victory for Holden and Red Bull Ampol Racing.
In 2022, Holden will race Bathurst one last time with Craig Lowndes starring alongside Super 2 racer Declan Fraser. The race will also mark the to record 300 ATCC/Supercars round starts for Lowndes, driving the #888 Holden Commodore wildcard entry for Triple Eight Race Engineering.
The Commodore will be replaced by the new Gen3 Camaro ZL1, ready to kick off a fierce on-track rivalry between Ford’s Mustang, continuing the red-versus-blue tradition going back to that first Monaro win at Bathurst in 1968.
