The Holden Racing Team began following the establishment in 1988 of the joint venture between the TWR Group and General Motors Holden, in forming Holden Special Vehicles. It was a logical step to form a touring car team to create a marketing link between the Special Vehicle’s division and the on-track heritage of Holden’s motor sport activities.

In 1989, Perkins Engineering was contracted by Holden Special Vehicles to run the race cars under the HSV banner, with the Holden Racing Team being established the following year under the management of Win Percy. Success was immediate, with Percy combining with Alan Grice to win that year’s Toohey’s 1000 at Mount Panorama, followed by a second place in 1991.

With the establishment of the V8-only category (later to become V8 Supercars) in 1993 and a return to the supporter-preferred Holden versus Ford battles, HRT rebuilt.

Under Managing Director John Crennan and Team Manager Jeff Grech the restructure began, with new personnel, new equipment and in 1994, the return of Peter Brock to the factory team, plus the support of major sponsor Mobil. Mobil then became naming rights sponsor in 1995.

The three year plan implemented in 1994 had its result in 1996 with Craig Lowndes sweeping the Australian Touring Car Championship, then with Greg Murphy, backed up to win the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 events.

That was the first title for HRT, followed by a remarkable winning run of Championships from 1998 to 2002, shared by firstly Lowndes and then Mark Skaife.

Victories at the Bathurst 1000 also followed in 2001 and 2002, but there were tough times ahead with the financial collapse of HRT’s UK parent company, the TWR Group, and the implementation of a category-wide parity mandate, Project Blueprint.

Mark Skaife became the new owner in mid-2003 and the team’s engineers worked to get on top of several new technical challenges. The rewards were few and often far between, but included victories in the Clipsal 500 and Sandown 500 in 2003, the Hidden Valley round in 2004 and 2005, and the inaugural trip to Shanghai as well as the Bathurst 1000 in 2005.

In 2006 Skaife stepped away from his ownership responsibilities to return his focus to racing. In a personal triumph he managed to beat Peter Brock’s long-standing V8 Supercar Championship record of 36 individual round wins, in what was otherwise a trying season. Team-mate Todd Kelly began the season brilliantly with a first up win in Adelaide, but decided by the end of the year to move elsewhere to try his luck after a long stint with HRT. 2008 brings a new livery, new major sponsor in Toll Holdings and a major driver signing coup with Garth Tander to drive for the team.