A DEAL for the sale of the #97 Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodore ZB Supercar that Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander took to victory in last weekend’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 had already been done before the car claimed victory in ‘The Great Race’.
But the new owner won’t get to take delivery of the Bathurst-winning car – the last factory-backed Holden to win the 1000-kilometre classic – until the end of next year given the car will be racing on with van Gisbergen and the team in 2021 prior to the introduction of Gen3 regulations and the new Camaro for 2022.
DON’T MISS OUT: Celebrate Holden’s victory by getting a copy of ‘Racing the Lion’, our 400-page Holden motorsport illustrated history book. Order your copy here now.
Triple Eight team boss Roland Dane confirmed to V8 Sleuth this week that the #97 Commodore, and indeed the sister chassis driven in last weekend’s race by Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes, already have arrangements in place for their sales.
“It will race on, it’s spoken for, someone has committed to buying it some time ago,” Dane told v8sleuth.com.au, the identity of the private collector remaining under wraps publicly.
Whincup will have a new chassis for the start of the 2021 season, planned to be the last Car of the Future-era chassis the team will build before the Gen3 Camaros come on stream for 2022.
WE FOUND THE FLAG MAN: Read about the fan who gave Shane van Gisbergen a Holden flag on the cool down lap at Bathurst 2020.
“We were committed to building another new one anyway for next year,” Dane says.
“Jamie’s (2020) car is also spoken for but will probably be the spare next year. We were building a new one for him, that was always happening, nothing to do with the accident at Bathurst.
“The only way we’d build another car after what we’re committed to now is if we really needed to for some reason.”
The Bathurst-winning chassis – 888A-054 – was debuted by van Gisbergen at the start of the season and has been run as the #97 car by the team all season.
It scored Triple Eight Race Engineering’s record 200th ATCC/Supercars Championship race win in van Gisbergen’s hands in Townsville in August, a milestone celebrated in a new limited-edition collector’s print signed by van Gisbergen, Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.
It’s available to order here now and is limited to just 500 prints with less than 30 remaining – hurry, order here before stock runs out!
The car that won the big race on Sunday became the eighth different chassis to score victory for Triple Eight in the Bathurst classic.
The team has now won three Bathursts with Fords and five with Holdens, though none of its Bathurst-winning chassis have been able to win multiple ‘Great Races’.
Only two individual chassis have won two Bathurst 1000s – Peter Brock’s 1982/83 HDT Commodore VH and Mark Skaife’s 2001/2002 HRT Commodore VX – but, despite van Gisbergen possibly being able to win two Bathurst 1000s in the same chassis next year, Dane says that specific piece of potential history is of no concern to him.
“I couldn’t care less to win two Bathursts with the one car, it’s of no interest to me, I just want to win Bathurst!” Dane told V8 Sleuth this week.
Triple Eight claimed its eighth Bathurst 1000 win last weekend, bringing it to within one ‘Great Race’ win of equalling the Holden Dealer Team/HDT Racing for the all-time record of most Bathurst 500/1000 wins by a single team.
HDT won the race in 1969 and 1972 under Harry Firth’s management, in 1978 and 1979 under John Sheppard and 1980, 1982-1984 and 1987 under Peter Brock, the latter under the HDT Racing banner after Brock’s bust-up with Holden.
The 2020 winning car is featured in a brilliant limited-edition print by acclaimed motorsport artist Peter Hughes, it’s available to order here now and is limited to a run of 888.
ORDER HERE: Don’t miss out and grab your 2020 Bathurst winner’s print here now!
UPDATE … This print is now sold out, we cannot get anymore stock from Peter Hughes, it’s a sell out!
