Last hurrah for Holden at Bathurst

THIS weekend’s Bathurst 1000 will mark the final time Holden will participate in a Supercars race at The Mountain.

It will no doubt be a bitter-sweet occasion for millions of Holden fans accustomed to seeing their favourite ‘red’ brand dicing for the lead often winning the iconic race at Mount Panorama.

With the move to the new Gen3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Supercars in 2023, Commodore will finally disappear from the hotly contested championship and hence, from Bathurst.

Putting a positive spin on something as momentous as the demise of Holden in Supercars is difficult but the fact that a GM model, available in Australia, will be competing next year in Supercars and at Bathurst is some salve to the many disappointed fans.

It may be the end of an era but has spawned the creation of a rivalry that goes back decades with Camaro versus Mustang resurrected. The action starts when the Gen3 Supercars debut at Newcastle in March 2023.

“The passion and excitement of success on the track has been such an important part of our Holden brand DNA,” said GM Australia and New Zealand managing director Marc Ebolo.

“This will continue to grow with the new Chevrolet Racing brand and, together with our close alignment with GM Motorsport, will be an ongoing demonstration of our dedication to competition and commitment to the sport.

“The high-performance demands of racing align with our vision for GM in Australia and New Zealand and will continue to be a significant reflection for all our brands, including GM Specialty Vehicles, GM Trade Parts and AC Delco.

“Holden Certified Service plays an integral part as well, as it maintains an important presence in order to service the more than 1.5-million Holden vehicles still on the road in Australia and New Zealand,” he said.

Racing this weekend provides Holden fans the opportunity to not only fire up the barbecue and stock up the beer fridge but also to celebrate a household name that has been revered in Australia for more than 70 years.

The race will be telecast and live streamed and will be the last Bathurst race to feature Holden versus Ford.

The pair have been fierce rivals in a half-century of track wars that split race fans into two intense and loyal camps – Red versus Blue. Feelings will be high, swinging between celebrations of so many heroic track deeds and the realisation that it is now really over for Holden… the final nail in the brand’s “coffin”.

Many Australians have been supporters of Holden cars in motor sport since the early days of the Holden 48/215 original. Their unshakable affection for Holden has been solidified by countless magical competition moments and a long list of great machines and racing heroes.

Holden cars starting with the Monaro, then the Torana and more recently a succession of Commodore V8s, have amassed 35 wins in the Bathurst 500/1000 at Mount Panorama, most recently at the hands of Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth for WAU in 2021.

Back in In 1968, racer/journalist David McKay organised a quasi-factory three-car team of Monaro V8s for that year’s Bathurst 500, but privateer Bruce McPhee took victory (with modest help from Barry Mulholland, who drove one lap to meet the regulations).

This was the first win for Holden in Australia’s best-known race.

Holden factory support began officially in 1969 in defiance of Holden’s parent company, General Motors, banning its brands worldwide from participation in motor racing, although trials and rallies were permitted.

With its charismatic sales director John Bagshaw trumpeting the marketing benefits of putting performance-based models on the track: “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday”, Holden cunningly skirted the ban by establishing the Holden Dealer Team.

Nominally owned by its dealers, the reality was that Holden bankrolled the entire campaign via a slush fund, with Harry Firth wooed from Ford to run the squad. The canny, autocratic Firth plucked from near obscurity smiley rally driver Colin Bond and shaggy haired Peter Brock, who had been racing a comical pint-sized A30 with a Holden engine.

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, Bond and Tony Roberts took a stunning victory with teammates Brock and Des West third. The other team car was sixth.

There followed many more HDT (and HRT) victories in myriad motorsport events, the ascendency of Peter Brock, the Torana XU-1, A9X and L34, the Round Australia Reliability Trial and Repco Trial, Commodore race cars, the “Energy Polarizer” farce, Tom Walkinshaw’s involvement, the Lowndes/Skaife era, the advent of HRT and too many gifted and talented drivers to mention all behind the wheel of Holden vehicles.