SYDNEY smash repair business owners Trevor Ashby and Steve Reed held an enduring partnership in Australian touring car racing, highlighted by a record 16 consecutive Bathurst 1000 starts.
The duo became fan favourites as leading privateers during the late 1980s and 1990s in a succession of colourfully-liveried Lansvale Smash Repairs Holden Commodores.
Ashby and Reed made the jump from Sports Sedans to touring cars in 1986 with the support of renowned engineer Wally Storey, and settled on running a home-grown Commodore during the era of international Group A regulations where the choice of manufacturers was plentiful.
But, as Ashby revealed to the Repco Garage, Holden wasn’t the only marque the duo considered prior to entering the touring car scene.
“When we first started, we didn’t know what we were going to race,” Ashby recalled.
“We actually considered a Nissan (Skyline) a one stage, but we thought if something breaks it will cost the earth. We looked at it pretty closely and thought ‘nope, we’re not going to do it’.
“It’ll date quicker too; when moving from one Nissan to the next, everything was changed, although the Commodores were drastic, but not as much.
“It turns out we were right.”
Choosing a Holden, like many privateers of the day, was a no brainer.
“We went Commodore because they were pretty easy to manage, the racing ones were the same, nearly all the privateers had them in those days,” Ashby said.
“A lot of parts were available and it made our jobs a lot easier.”
Both Ashby and Reed shared a variety of Commodores featuring its distinctive multi-coloured Dulux and PPG-backed liveries during the 1990s, when the duo took multiple Privateers Cup wins.
Later expanding to two entries as the Australian Touring Car Championship turned into V8 Supercars and a new professional era at the turn of the millennium, the Lansvale Smash Repairs squad exited the sport at the end of 2003.
This story also appears on the Repco Garage website.
For more news and content like this story, as well as videos competitions and podcasts, visit the Repco Garage here.
