THE two-time Adelaide 500 winning Holden Racing Team Commodore VF of James Courtney has found itself a new home – with his former co-driver Jack Perkins!
Perkins has acquired chassis WR 020 – the car he drove to his maiden V8 Supercar race win alongside Courtney at the 2015 Gold Coast 600 in HRT colours – and it has taken up residence at Perkins Engineering’s workshop in the western suburbs of Melbourne.
Courtney drove the car to overall victory in the 2014 and 2015 Clipsal 500s in Adelaide, the chassis sitting idle for the last few years at Walkinshaw Andretti United as a VF Commodore, not modified to a ZB Commodore as some of the team’s other chassis have been.
Perkins told v8sleuth.com.au today that the car still requires some work but will be put back onto the track at some stage.
“It’s not quite complete and needs a motor and a few things tidied off to get it back to 2015 specification,” he said.
“We will definitely get it on the track and go from there with it.”
The chassis was new in 2013 and given its race debut by Nick Percat at the season-ending Sydney 500 after Courtney was injured in the previous round at Phillip Island when his HRT Commodore was smashed into by Alex Premat after a tyre deflated on the Frenchman’s Fujitsu Commodore.
The car was raced by Courtney in 2014 and 2015, sat as a spare in 2016 and was wheeled out by the team in 2017 under the Mobil 1 HSV Racing banner for Courtney to drive at Winton and in the following rounds through to Sydney Motorsport Park.
It has not seen any racing since and has been returned to the distinctive HRT livery of 2015.
The car now joins a handy collection of cars that sit among the Perkins Engineering collection, including the under-restoration 1993 Castrol Bathurst-winning Commodore VP and Larry Perkins’ last Bathurst Castrol Commodore VY, restored as it ran in 2003.
Holden fans can now pre-order our soon-to-be-released book ‘Racing The Lion’, an illustrated history of Holden in motorsport.
At 400 pages and packed with photos never before published, it’s the perfect collector’s piece and can be pre-ordered here now.
