THE 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour-winning Monaro is set to become one of the banner head attractions for the Historic GP at Taupō International Motorsport Park in January.
The car, built and raced by Garry Rogers Motorsport and financed by then-PROCAR chief Ross Palmer, won the last Bathurst 24 Hour held with Peter Brock, Greg Murphy, Jason Bright and Todd Kelly behind the wheel.
Now the seven-litre Monaro is set to leave Australian shores for the first time and head to New Zealand to join in the festivities.
Murphy will step behind the wheel of the car at Taupō for demonstration purposes but it’s not the first time he’s driven the car since its 24 Hour success.
The four-time Bathurst 1000 winner drove the red Monaro in 2020 at the Phillip Island Historic event.
Murphy will be joined at the event by Bathurst-winning partners Craig Lowndes (they won together in 1996) and Steve Richards (they won together in 1999) as well as Jack Perkins, with whom he enjoyed success sharing a Commodore in the now-defunct NZ V8SuperTourer series.
V8 Sleuth has become the official media partner for the event that will be held on January 19-21 in 2024 at the Taupō International Motorsport Park and broadcast live on Sky Sport in New Zealand and Fox Sports in Australia.
The Taupō Historic GP is the second round of the Super Sprint MotorSport NZ Championship and will host the opening round of the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship (CTFROC) as part of a unique modern/historic flavoured race meeting.
The event is also a unique celebration of Trans-Tasman Holden history and will feature a ‘Holden All-Comers’ race open to all Holden race cars with a homologated roll cage and logbook.
Also set to appear are Historic Touring Cars NZ, Historic Sports Sedans and Allcomers, Historic Saloons, Sports and GTs, F5000, Formula Open NZ and Formula Junior/Formula 3/Historic Formula Ford.
