ON Sunday Craig Lowndes will attempt to deliver a Holden factory backed team one last win in the Bathurst 1000, but his tribute to the manufacturer will begin before then.
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Lowndes will join two other men who have steered Holdens to victory in the Great Race - Mark Skaife and Todd Kelly - in paying tribute to the red lion in a 15-minute track session at the Mount from 11.05am today.
Since Holden enjoyed its first win in 1968 with Bruce McPhee's privately-entered Monaro, it has continued to enjoy success.
Four of Lowndes' seven Bathurst wins have come in Commodores, so the fan favourite was saddened in February when hearing the news that Holden's parent company General Motors would cease operations in Australia by the end of 2020.
While teams will continue to race their current Commodores in next year's Supercars series, Sunday will mark the last time a factory-backed Holden team is on the Bathurst grid.
The Gen3 Camaro package is set to replace the Commodore in 2022.
Lowndes will act as co-driver for Red Bull Racing star Jamie Whincup in the the factory-backed #888 Commodore in Sunday's Great Race.
"I was lucky enough to start my career with the factory team and this weekend we get to close the chapter with it as well," he said.
"We want to celebrate it and hopefully we can do that with a win."
Today in the tribute Lowndes will drive the Bathurst National Motor Racing Museum's replica of the 1968 winning car.
Skaife, who won Bathurst four times in a Holden, will lap in an ex-Peter Brock Holden Dealer Team Group A VK Commodore.
Meanwhile Kelly, who won the Great Race alongside Skaife in 2005, will steer the 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour winning Monaro.
Kelly raced that Monaro with Brock, Greg Murphy and Jason Bright.
"It's a really nice thing to be a part of, especially for Craig and I," Skaife told Supercars.com. "Holden has meant so much to us, it's been such a big part of our lives.
"Winning Bathurst with Todd on his birthday in 2005 was particularly special, so it'll be nice to share the moment with him too.
"I remember racing against [Group A Commodores] when I just started out with Nissan in the 1980s, so it'll be great to have a little speed around in one."
