Holden VS Commodore 1997 Bathurst Winner

The 1997 Primus Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercar race was a classic, particularly given the emotion surrounding the first of Peter Brock’s numerous retirements and the record crowd cramming onto Mount Panorama to farewell him. But through it all, Larry Perkins and his team-mate Russell Ingall in their Holden VS Commodore, had out-raced all opposition to clinch the Castrol Team’s third Bathurst 1000 win, in its last five starts.
The starting order for Sunday’s race had Peter Brock and Mark Skaife in a fairy-tale pole position, Glenn Seton and David Parsons second in a Ford Falcon, Greg Murphy and Craig Lowndes slotting behind their Holden team-mates in third and Larry Perkins and Russell Ingall ready to go in fourth spot, still on the second row.
At the start on Sunday from Pole, Peter Brock shot away and confidently led Seton towards Hell Corner. But the best start was made by Larry Perkins, who dived around Seton’s right, to take second position into the turn. The crowd’s reaction was predictable.
They roared as Brock was moving away slightly over the opening lap, with Perkins driving hard to stay with him. The race pace was so hot that Peter Brock was into lapped traffic on lap 8 and by lap 9 Perkins’ string of low 2m13s laps had taken the Castrol VS Commodore up to Brock’s rear wing, with Greg Murphy trying to catch both of them. By lap 15 the three of them were together.
Brock, Perkins and Murphy were racing each other hard, out in front of the field. Larry made his first pit stop on lap 32. Russell Ingall jumped in and took off with a full tank and a new set of Dunlop tyres, rejoining the race in fifth position. On lap 39, Lowndes in second position crashed into the concrete at McPhillamy Park, braking the front suspension. The second HRT cars’ race was finished.
On lap 53 everything else fell apart for HRT. Skaife had an eight second lead over Ingall, when the car suddenly slowed approaching Griffin’s Bend, an engine backfire and subsequent fire in the wiring harness ending the 05 cars race. Mark Skaife and Peter Brock’s race was over. The Castrol VS Commodore was now in the lead. Russell Ingall pushed hard in his stint before handing back to Larry on lap 62. Fuel and tyres were added and the stop had dropped the car to fifth place. The compulsory brake pad change would have to wait until the next stop. The lead would change a few times in the exciting middle section of the race. The Safety Car came out when the leaders were on their 91st lap, right on cue for Larry Perkins, who had still not made his brake pad change.
Larry dived into the pits. Fuel, tyres, pads and Russell Ingall went in. Ingall was back on the track in time to re-inherit the lead.
After the next Safety Car period, Glenn Seton had fought for 12 laps to stay ahead of Ingall. The gap had varied between three and four seconds until Russell began to close. Ingall forged past the Falcon as he started his 107th lap and the chase was all over for Glenn, who would now be a lap down.
On lap 124 Ingall gave Larry and the crew a fright when he ran off the track at The Chase, running out of fuel with the car cutting out, bouncing along the grass for a bit before getting back on the track, unscathed. He quickly resumed race pace after switching to the reserve tank, but pitted next time around to hand over to The Boss, with 36 laps to go. Larry Perkins went out with new tyres and a full tank of fuel... but would it be enough to finish the race? During their pitstop they had temporarily lost the lead, but this was quickly restored with the pitstops and driver changes to follow. Perkins was back in the lead.
By lap 131 the chopping and changing of leaders had settled down. Perkins had a 56 second lead over Steven Richards, with Mark Larkham a further 9 seconds back. At lap 138 Perkins dived in for a quick splash of fuel, re-joining still in the lead, but by lap 139, it was only by 19 seconds. Steven Richards could see a chance in his sights and kept on driving hard, matching Larry lap for lap. But Larry had the race in his grasp, the Castrol VS Commodore was going as well as ever and he knew he had fuel aplenty. As hard as Richards drove, he could make only a token impression on Perkins’ lead.
Larry had the race under his control and the Commodore was performing beautifully. Barring a puncture or other problem, they would win. Larry Perkins crossed the line in 6 hours, 21 minutes and 55 seconds, to take his sixth victory on the Mountain. The 1997 Race would be Russell Ingall’s second victory at Mount Panorama and second with Perkins. The first in 1995 in a VR Commodore. Steven and Jim Richards were a deserved second place, 11 seconds behind Perkins and Ingall. Third place on the podium was Mark Larkham and Andrew Miedecke.

Item includes certificate and production number plate, mounted to the chassis.