THE Castrol Perkins Racing Commodore VP that Larry Perkins and Gregg Hansford took to victory in the 1993 Bathurst 1000 has changed hands.
The car, restored over the last seven years by Jack and Larry Perkins, is now part of the Muscle Car Warehouse collection of Perry Bitsakis.
The revelation came today with the confirmation that the car will join the PremiAir Hire Bathurst winners’ category at the Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival on March 16/17.
A press release announcing the car’s attendance at the popular event referred to the car as coming to the event ‘courtesy of Perry Bitsikas’ Muscle Car Warehouse private collection’.
Every Perkins Engineering-built Commodore is featured in the Perkins Engineering official car history book produced by V8 Sleuth – limited unsigned, unnumbered copies remain available here in the V8 Sleuth Superstore.
The VP is the second Perkins Engineering-built Commodore to join the MCW collection following in the wheel tracks of the 2003 Castrol VY Commodore that Perkins Snr drove in his last Bathurst 1000 start.
The very same chassis – PE 041 – was driven by Jack Perkins in his debut in the ‘Great Race’ in 2006 in Jack Daniel’s colours.
The Castrol VP appeared at last year’s Repco Bathurst 1000 with Larry Perkins at the wheel and most recently was driven by Jack at the Historic GP at Taupo in New Zealand.
It famously is the last Holden to win the Bathurst 1000 using a Holden V8 engine, rather than the Chevrolet-based units used by other teams that became commonplace in Commodore Supercars in the years that followed.
The Castrol Commodore is the latest Bathurst 1000 winner confirmed for the Adelaide event.
It will join the 1982/83 HDT race-winning Commodore VH, the pair of Nissan GT-R winners from 1991 and 1992, the 2020 and 2022 Red Bull Commodore ZB, 1965 race-winning Seton/Bosworth Cortina and 1976 race winning L34 Torana of Bob Morris and John Fitzpatrick.
The latter two cars will be provided for the event by the National Motor Racing Museum in Bathurst.
