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LOT 129 Castrol Livery
Following a stunning victory in 1995, the Castrol Perkins team failed to back up the following year before returning to the winner’s podium in 1997 in the Primus Bathurst 1000 Classic with the very Holden Commodore offered for sale here. Although perhaps not as exciting or incredible as the result in 1995, when Perkins and Ingall brought their car from a lap down at one stage to take the win, no victory at Bathurst is ever easy and thus the result is still hugely impressive. Ingall and Perkins had qualified 4th on the grid and had a good car underneath them. By the first corner they were in second place and in comparison to 1995 it was plain sailing from there. In Perkins’ first stint he broke the lap record with a time of 2 minutes 12.3398 seconds – a record that stood until 2001. The toughest part of the race was trying to pass the Gardner/Crompton Commodore but Perkins was able to avoid the oil slick when they blew up and took the lead. Ingall later ran out of fuel at The Chase, running across the grass, but was able to switch to the reserve and kept going to hand over to Perkins for the remaining 36 laps. The Ingall/Perkins entry built up a substantial lead, enough to make a splash and dash fuel stop and came out 18 seconds up on the Richards/Stevens car. Richards managed to reduce the deficit to just 11 seconds but Perkins went on to win the event after 161 gruelling laps of the Mount Panorama circuit. The relatively straightforward victory is testament to the build quality of the car and the skill of its two pilots. Whilst not as dramatic as the 1995 race, the 1997 race victory is still a significant and impressive one. The opportunity to acquire a Bathurst winning car is rare to say the least and this fully restored car would make an extremely worthy addition to any racing car collection. Having sealed victory at Bathurst, Perkins continued to campaign the Holden until the sixth round of the 1998 Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) at Wanneroo in May 1998. In September 1998, Perkins sold the car to Barry Morcom who competed at Eastern Creek, The Clipsal 500 at Sandown and the Oran Park round of the ATCC in September 1999. Mathew White then bought the car and competed in the Konica Mionolta Series as well as the 2000 FAI 1000 at Bathurst. The car was then campaigned in the Konica series in 2001 and 2002 before it was eventually purchased by Mark Seamons in November 2002. Mr Seamons then carried out a total cosmetic restoration of the car back to its 1997 Bathurst Specification aided in no small way by experienced restorer Marty Brant at Independant Race cars. Completed in early 2004 Mr Seamons drove the car at a HSV Club Owners Sprint. Despite not having any problems whatsoever, the car was then returned to Nathan Higgins (who had been working at Perkins Engineering when the car was originally built) to oversee a total restoration of the engine for peace of mind. Subsequently the car then passed into the current vendor's ownership and was placed on display along with his 1995 Bathurst winning Commodore at the Australian National Motor Racing Museum in Bathurst. Offered for sale with an extensive history file and its original CAMS log books this car is an extremely worthy Bathurst winner with a fully traceable history and a total restoration completed to the highest standards. An extremely rare opportunity to acquire a Bathurst winning Holden built by a legendary racing team.
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