Go Torque - Trade News Direct Issue 1 2016 | Page 21

V8
MOTORSPORT
SUPERCARS

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with the contest then brought
to an early end due to time
limitations.
Confusion over rules concerning
the amount of fuel teams had to
‘dump’ into their cars during the
course of the shortened race (140
litres) added to the controversy
and intrigue.
In the end, hometown hero
Nick Percat took an extremely
popular win for the minnow Lucas
Dumbrell Motorsport outfit, the
victory akin to David slaying the
V8’s Goliath teams.
The triumph was Percat’s first solo
victory after his Bathurst win with
Garth Tander in 2011, and LDM’s
first win altogether (even its first
podium), with the scenes of Percat
and the wheelchair-confined team

owner Lucas Dumbrell embracing
each other highly emotional.
Capping off the history-making
weekend for Holden was Tander’s
third placed finish in the atrocious
conditions, his podium giving
Holden seven of the weekend’s
possible nine podium positions.
Holden’s first ever Australian
Touring Car Championship
race win came on 31 August
1969, courtesy of the legendary
“Stormin’ Norman,” Norm
Beechey’s win in his HK Monaro
GTS 327 at round four of the 1969
ATCC, held at Surfers Paradise
International Raceway.
Beechey followed that first win
with another at the next round,
held at Symmons Plains Raceway,
near Launceston, before securing

Holden’s first championship with
his famous yellow HT Monaro GTS
350 the following year.
Commodore is the most winning
nameplate in ATCC/V8SC history
with 449 championship race wins,
while the VE Series Commodore
holds the record for the most wins
by an individual model at 103.
VF Commodore already sits
second on the all-time most wins
list with 77 championship race
victories to date.
With the Australian Grand Prix
support races not part of the V8
championship, the opportunity
for Holden to break the 500 wins
barrier comes at the Tasmania
SuperSprint at Symmons Plains
Raceway on 1-3 April.

GO TORQUE. TRADE NEWS DIRECT. Issue 1. 2016

21