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Team Profile: The Team
PICTURED: The Team, Holden Racing Team.
Formed in 1990 by Tom Walkinshaw, the Holden Racing Team – the official factory racing team of Holden – is one of Australian sport’s greatest success stories.
HRT made its debut at the first round of the Australian Touring Car Championship at Sydney’s Amaroo Park on 25 February 1990 with driver/manager Win Percy.
After a humble beginnings, Percy scored the team’s first ever podium three months later when he finished third at Lakeside.
Percy and Allan Grice then combined to deliver HRT its first ever race victory in October that year, winning Australia’s Great Race, the Bathurst 1000 at Mt Panorama. Team-mates Brad Jones and Neil Crompton finished a creditable fifth in the second HRT Commodore.
Albeit popular on the day, their win was considered a major upset, Grice and Percy defeating a fleet of Ford’s high-fancied turbocharged Sierra RS500s in their home grown Commodore V8.
The team ‘hit its straps’ in the mid-90s with the return to Holden of the legendary Peter Brock, and the emergence of Craig Lowndes.
HRT has amassed a record unsurpassed in Australian motor racing.
Its successes include six driver’s titles (1996, 98, 99, 2000, 01, 02), seven Bathurst 1000 victories (1990, 96, 2001, 02, 05, 09, 11), and five V8 Supercar Team’s Championship (1999-2002, 09).
HRT also holds the record of 200 all-time race wins – more than double its nearest rival.
It is also the only team to have won races in every state and territory of Australia, along with New Zealand, China, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
HRT’s driver line-up reads like a Who’s Who of Australian motor racing and includes; Percy, Grice, Jones, Crompton, Tomas Mezera, Wayne Gardner, Brock, Lowndes, Greg Murphy, Mark Skaife, Cameron McConville, Tony Longhurst, Jim Richards, Jason Bright, Todd Kelly, Will Davison and Ryan Briscoe.
Its 2012 driver line-up is comprised of 2007 V8 Supercar Champion and three-time Bathurst 1000 winner Garth Tander, who will be in his fifth year with the team, and 2010 V8 Supercar Champion James Courtney, who returns for his second season with HRT.
Team Principal
Ryan Walkinshaw
Managing Director
Steve Hallam
Racing Operations Manager
Mike Henry
Team Manager
Anthony McDonald
Engineers
#2 Holden Racing Team Commodore – Alistair McVean
#22 Holden Racing Team Commodore – Scott Sinclair
Commercial Manager
Bruce Stewart
Marketing Manager
Rhett Beere
Media Manager
Gerald McDornan
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