Holden unveil livery for final Bathurst factory entry
Ahead of this weekend’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, Holden and Triple Eight Race Engineering have presented a special livery for Holden’s final factory assault at Mount Panorama.
Over 50 years of Holden factory support for touring car racing will come to an end on 18 October, and in the final battle between Holden and Ford works teams that has lasted for over half a century, Triple Eight will carry the Holden flag, with Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes, Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander to represent the brand one last time as full-time, factory-backed Holden Racing Team drivers.
As a tribute to the millions of Holden fans who’ll be watching the great race on television this year, Holden and Triple Eight Race Engineering today unveiled a unique livery update for the #888 and #97 Red Bull Holden Racing Team ZB Commodore supercars.
Red Bull HRT says the “THANKS HOLDEN FANS” graphic is a respectful acknowledgement to the many wonderful supporters, drivers, engineers, dealers, commercial partners, marketers and others who have provided so many great memories.
Standing at the famous Skyline section at Bathurst for the farewell livery’s reveal, Craig Lowndes summed up the occasion: “This tribute livery on the last factory race team Commodores is a tremendous message of thanks to the Holden fans. Jamie and I would be extremely proud to bring home a final victory for Holden.”
Fan Celebration – without the Fans
Due to COVD-19 limits on public gatherings, only 4,000 fans will be allowed into the Mount Panorama circuit per day. That’s well down on the 200,000+ fans that have attended annually for the last five years. There will be no camping on site this year, nor spectator access to the paddock area. Driver autograph session have been canned, too.
Spectator access will be limited to Murray’s Corner, pit straight and Hell Corner only, confined to reserved seating with strict social distancing measures in place.
“I’ll certainly miss the usual crowds at Bathurst this year,” Lowndes said.
Given the limits on spectator numbers on-site, the television audience for this year’s Bathurst is expected to break records – even last year’s Fox Sports record of 502,000 viewers. Combined viewer numbers across Ten and Fox last year were 1.815 million, up 10.1 per cent on 2018’s total.
The 2020 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 gets underway on Thursday, 15 October, with the supercars on track for their first practice session from 9:30AM.
Qualifying on Friday, 16 October, followed by the Top 10 Shootout on Saturday, 17 October, leads into race day - Sunday, 18 October, with the race starting at 11:30AM.
