The official history of Holden in Australian motorsport ends this weekend with the chequered flag at the finish of the 2022 Adelaide 500. Here are the 15 most important Holden race cars over the past 71 years.
Holden has at the centre of Australian motorsport since the early 1950s – almost a decade before graduating to the inaugural Australian Touring Car Championship on the little known and long-closed Gnoo Blas racing circuit near the regional NSW town of Orange in 1960.
There were ‘humpy’ Holdens – the nickname for the original 48-215 and FJ from the late 1940s and early 1950s – on the grid for local races and time trials involving stock-standard or lightly-modified road cars.
In the decades since, Holden cars have won in circuit racing, long-distance rallying, closed-course rally-cross, off-road competitions – and even had their own single-seater series powered by race-prepared versions of the Commodore’s V6 engine.
The earliest recorded victory by a Holden – according to motorsport historian and commentator Aaron Noonan – was a rally win by Stan (father of Alan) Jones, Maurie Monk and Jim Hoy in the 1951 Experts Trial in Victoria.
Another little known racer, Dick Shaw, came close to winning a 24-hour race at Mount Druitt in Sydney in 1954 before finishing fourth behind a Jaguar XK120 sports car.
But since the 1960s, touring car racing – and the modern V8 Supercars championship – have helped shape Australian car culture and been instrumental in establishing the Holden heartland.
The perilous public road that becomes a race track once a year – Mount Panorama, Bathurst – is hallowed ground for Holden fans, after clocking up 35 wins versus Ford’s tally of 21.
Every Holden fan has a favourite race car – from the original Monaro in the 1960s, through the XU-1 and A9X Toranas in the 1970s, to a long cavalcade of successful Commodores between 1980 and the present.
Many of the memories are also tied to the drivers – from Peter Brock through Larry Perkins and Mark Skaife to Jamie Whincup and Garth Tander – who have won the big one at Mount Panorama.
The newest and final member of the milestone club is the imported Commodore ZB, which clocked up back-to-back titles in the V8 Supercars championship – and as well as victory in this year’s Bathurst 1000 – by Shane van Gisbergen.
Here is the Drive honour roll of the Top 15 Holden race cars of all time:
1. 1970 Holden Monaro HT – Norm Beechey
The bellowing V8 beast was the first homegrown Holden to take the fight up to the Ford Mustangs and Chevrolet Camaros imported from the USA for touring car racing. ‘Stormin’ Norm Beechey was the original Holden hero and used his Monaro to flamboyant effect as he entertained the crowd.
2. 1972 Torana XU-1 – Peter Brock
The giant killer. When Ford created its sledgehammer V8-powered GTHO Falcons for the Bathurst 500 – when it was raced in miles – the Holden response was a nimble pocket rocket with a six-cylinder engine that won races and rallies across Australia and created the launchpad for a legend – Peter Brock – through his first victory at Bathurst.
3. 1978 Torana A9X – Peter Brock and Jim Richards
When Holden fitted a 5.0-litre V8 to its new-generation Torana, it lit a firecracker. The original SL/R 5000 gave way to the race-bred A9X and it won at Bathurst, becoming the car of choice for dozens of privateer drivers including touring car champion Bob Morris.
4. 1979 Torana A9X – Peter Brock and Jim Richards
The Torana A9X went back-to-back at Bathurst in 1979 with the most crushing margin in the history of ‘The Great Race’. Peter Brock, with Jim Richards sharing what would become a three-peat in 1980, won by six laps and celebrated the success by setting a new track record on his final lap.
5. 1984 Commodore VK – Peter Brock and Larry Perkins
The ‘last of the big bangers’, as it was called at the time, was wild and wicked – and a winner. The factory Holden Dealer Team built two brand-new cars for the Sandown and Bathurst endurance races, even with new rules coming, and they finished 1-2 as Brock paired with Larry Perkins.
6. 1987 Commodore VL – Peter Brock, David Parsons and Peter McLeod
The VL Commodore was outpaced by newer turbocharged rivals such as the Ford Sierra in the late 1980s but Brock collected his ninth Bathurst win against the world’s best touring car teams after the Texaco Fords that crossed the line in first and second place were disqualified after the race for a technical breach.
7. 1990 Commodore VL – Allan Grice and Win Percy
The new Holden Racing Team turned the ‘Walkinshaw’ Commodore – named after team owner Tom Walkinshaw – into an upset Bathurst winner as Allan Grice drove the race of his life against faster Ford Sierras. The VL became a favourite with touring car fans and helped cement the Walkinshaw name in Australia.
8. 1993 Commodore VP – Larry Perkins and Gregg Hansford
The VP Commodore went through big changes including the introduction of Chevrolet V8 engines from the USA, but Larry Perkins stayed loyal to Holden as he and motorcycle champion Gregg Hansford won Bathurst at the start of a new era of Holden-versus-Ford rivalry.
9. 1996 Commodore VR – Craig Lowndes
The VR Commodore became a consistent winner as Craig Lowndes arrived in touring car racing and, with Peter Brock as his mentor, quickly became a Holden hero. His best year was 1996 when he bagged the touring car title, as well as the Sandown and Bathurst endurance races with Greg Murphy.
10. 2001 Commodore VX – Mark Skaife
The car nicknamed the ‘Golden Child’ by the Holden Racing Team carried Mark Skaife to an epic 20 V8 Supercar championship race wins and take out the 2001 and 2002 titles.
The ‘Golden Child’ was also one of only two cars to claim back-to-back victories at Bathurst – when Skaife paired with Tony Longhurst in 2001 and then his great mate Jim Richards in 2002.
As such, it holds a very special place in the hearts of fans – and is a key piece of Holden racing history.
11. 2003 Commodore VY – Greg Murphy
The VY Commodore continued Holden’s winning run in the V8 Supercars championship and Greg Murphy at Mount Panorama when he clocked a 2 minute 06.8594 second lap to claim pole position for Bathurst – a record at the time.
It was quickly named ‘The Lap of the Gods’.
12. 2012 Commodore VE – Jamie Whincup
Jamie Whincup was at his peak in the days of the Commodore VE, winning back-to-back championships and Bathurst in 2012 before upgrading to the VF model for another three titles on the way to his place as the ‘GOAT’ of V8 Supercars – Greatest Of All Time – with a total of seven crowns.
13. 2022 Commodore ZB – Shane van Gisbergen
Holden is leaving motorsport on top thanks to the ZB Commodore (the imported model that replaced almost four-decades of homegrown Commodores).
Although it shares nothing with the final locally-made Holden – other than the badge and the name – it carried Shane van Gisbergen and his Bathurst co-driver Garth Tander to back-to-back V8 Supercars championships and twin wins at Mount Panorama.
While diehard fans might not deem it to be a real Holden, it gets a run on our list for its importance at the end of an era.
14. 2003 Holden Monaro 427C – 2003 Bathurst 24-Hour winner
Who needs a Ferrari or Porsche when you can have a hand-built Holden Monaro? When Mount Panorama hosted 24-hour sports car endurance races in 2002 and 2003, Holden built two very special 7.0-litre V8 monsters and took twin wins – with Peter Brock on the winning team in 2003 onboard car #05.
The Monaro was so powerful, the drivers were told over the team radio to take it easy so they didn’t win by too much and risk being hit with a weight penalty in potential future races. The code to drivers? “Take a drink.”
15. 1978 VB Commodore – 1979 Repco Reliability Trial winner
Holden took a massive gamble when it entered three of its then-new VB Commodores for the toughest long-distance Australian rally in more than 40 years, but slick organisation and the quality of the car allowed it to sweep the podium.
So did road graders that were reportedly hired by Holden to sweep some of the tougher sections of track the day before.
True or not, Peter Brock proved he was more than just a racer when he beat the rally aces in the winning car.
The post The Top 15 Holden race cars of all time appeared first on Drive.
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