CRAIG Lowndes’ first Holden Racing Team Commodore has turned its first laps on a racetrack following its restoration.
Chassis HRT 026 was the car Lowndes drove in the 1994 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix support races in Adelaide, his first solo drive for the team after starring at that year’s Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000.
A photo of Lowndes on his way to seventh place in the wet opening race on Saturday – where he was the first HRT car home – appears in our upcoming book Sensational Adelaide: The Illustrated History of the Adelaide 500.
The 400-page, hardcover collector’s book brings all 22 years of the event to life through stunning photographs, stories and statistics and has recently opened for pre-orders in the V8 Sleuth Bookshop.
PRE-ORDER: Sensational Adelaide, The Illustrated History of the Adelaide 500
RETRO: The HRT VN Commodore that chased 320 km/h
SATURDAY SLEUTHING: The ‘missing’ Holden Racing Team Commodore
Now in the hands of a private collector, HRT 026 has spent recent months undergoing a thorough restoration to its condition when Lowndes raced it in Adelaide.
The car took to Sydney Motorsport Park on Friday and Saturday as part of the Touring Car Revival event, featuring other machines from the Australian Touring Car Championship’s five-litre V8 era and the early V8 Supercars years.
Watch an onboard lap aboard HRT 026 in the player below!
Follow the Facebook page documenting HRT 026’s restoration here.
