Russell Ingall will carry the helmet design from his championship-winning 2005 campaign when he makes his Supercars return in eight days’ time.

The 57-year-old will take to the track on Thursday next week at the Repco Bathurst 1000 – if not in the free-for-all opening practice, then definitely in the Additional Drivers Practice later in the day.

Ingall last contested the Great Race in 2016 alongside Rick Kelly; he’ll make his comeback in a #39 Supercheap Auto-backed, Triple Eight Race Engineering-run ZB Commodore with Broc Feeney.

And for the occasion, he’s opted for a blast from the past.

“I’ve still got the original Bathurst helmet from ’95 and ’97 [the years he won the 1000] but I decided to go with the 2005 one,” Ingall told Speedcafe.com, having initially worn a black scheme upon returning to the car earlier this year.

“It was a good year.

“I’ve always had that design. Probably when I first started racing Formula Ford is when I sort of went to that design and then just changed the colours a bit and stuck with it.

“I speared off in a few different directions when I changed helmet painters, there was a couple of guys there that went their own way, but then I pulled it back and went back to the original.

“But yeah, it was a toss-up between the two [choosing whether to bring the 2005 or 1995/97 design back to life]. It was just that this one looked cooler.

“The ’05 one was the best-looking helmet I ever did, because that’s when I started going chrome, and I was like the first guy to start doing chrome helmets because no one could work it out.

“But because I was always messing around with cars, my own road cars, I got onto a couple of mobs that could chrome plastics… because chroming plastics back then was like ‘how did you do that?’.

“And it was a Ford [season], so that way I cover both Ford and Holden.”

Ingall and Feeney completed three test days at Queensland Raceway in preparation for their wildcard effort.

Feeney, 19, leads the Dunlop Super2 Series standings and will succeed Jamie Whincup next year in Triple Eight’s Supercars Championship programme.