THE Holden Racing Team Commodore chassis that Peter Brock took to the squad’s first Australian Touring Car Championship round win at Eastern Creek and also took Craig Lowndes to second place in his famous 1994 Bathurst debut is set to be restored.
The HRT 028 chassis has been acquired by enthusiast collector Gavin Strongman, who intends to return the Commodore back to VP specification.
The bare chassis, which started its life as a VN Group A Commodore in late 1991, has lay idle for over 10 years and will require a huge amount of work to bring it back to life.
Its new owner intends to return it to its 1994 Brock ATCC livery and specification.
Speaking of HRT, there’s a special HRT chapter in our new ‘Racing The Lion’ book, an illustrated history of Holden in Australian motorsport. At 400 pages, this hardcover book is a must-have and can be pre-ordered here now.
Strongman’s car’s race debut came at the 1991 Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst in the hands of Win Percy and Allan Grice; the duo finished second to the mighty Nissan GT-R of Jim Richards and Mark Skaife.
HRT 028 moved into the hands of Tomas Mezera in the second half of 1993 before the chassis became Brock’s #05 car in the ’94 ATCC when he joined the factory team along with long-time partner Mobil.
Lowndes and Brad Jones drove the car as #015 in the endurance races, finishing second in the Tooheys 1000 after Lowndes’ late race dog fight with eventual winner John Bowe.
The chassis was sold as a rolling chassis to privateer Peter McLeod in 1995 and ran it as the Enzed Commodore VR after converting it to a Panhard bar rear end.
It later spent time with privateer Simon Emerzidis and has been through the hands of a few owners since its V8 Supercar career ended in 1999, including spending time as a ride car in the early 2000s.
Strongman has set up a Facebook page here to document the work on the car.
