The quite achiever of motor racing in this country Bob Holden will be a special guest at next week's Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 as he celebrates the 50th anniversary of his greatest win, the Great Race at Bathurst, the Gallaher 500.
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Holden will be in Bathurst as a Guest of Honour as more than 80 Minis make the trek from all over Australia with some 300 mini fans in a four day element of this year’s Great Race to help celebrate the anniversary of the 'flying bricks' mountain victory.
Among many engagements for the legendary racer will be a 'Meet and Greet' at the Dudley Hotel on Stewart Street at 7pm for 7.30pm when the 84 year old who still competes competitively in the Heritage Touring Cars in one of his old cars a Toyota Corolla AE82 FX-GT will be in attendance.
Mine host of the Dudley Robert (Stumpy) Taylor and an avid motorsport fan, said he hoped local race fans will take the opportunity to come and meet the man who has been an absolute treasure of the sport.
While in Bathurst the 300 plus Mini fans will parade around the famous 6.213km piece of bitumen with Holden at the head.
Over the four days at the circuit race fans will see a replication of the first to ninth placed Minis on display in Harris Park.
They will be joined by a much larger collection on track Saturday mid morning parked alongside the National Motor Racing Museum at Murray’s Corner on Saturday and Sunday.
Holden raced Holden’s including an FE and FJ along with many racing Peugeots, and even a GTHO Ford Falcon, but because of the cost factor the bulk of his career was spent in small-engined touring cars.
He was a regular part of the BMC factory team driving the Morris Cooper S types in both racing and rallying, but then moved on to establish a reputation for himself as an expert in Ford Escorts, possibly a highlight of that being a fine second outright finish behind Dick Johnson.
During the mid 80's he made the move to Toyota racing several models of the Corolla, with one of his greatest achievements being his win in the 1.6 litre class in the Bathurst round of the 1987 World Touring Car Championship
Teams continue with preparation for next week's Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. Supercars news, Garth Tander had been overlooked in the driver line up for the Walkinshaw Racing outfit in 2017.
Fellow Holden Racing Team driver James Courtney who like Tander is off contract at season's end was resigned and will have Scott Pye as his new teammate, the youngster looking to be without a drive for a while as he was replaced at DJR Team Penske.
