The Supercars Championship isn’t the only category celebrating the history of Australian touring car racing this month.
Touring Car Masters racer Brett Youlden has unveiled a new colour scheme for his Holden Monaro that pays tribute to Bob Morris’ memorable 1979 ATCC victory.
The green, white and blue hues applied to Youlden’s Monaro were made famous by the Ron Hodgson Motors Torana A9X, which beat the might of Peter Brock and the Holden Dealer Team to the title.
Youlden’s Monaro will line-up against Jason Gomersall’s HDT-lookalike A9X in the TCM class, which resumes with Round 6 this weekend alongside the Shannons Nationals at Phillip Island.
“The green I’ve always had on my car was basically the same as the colour Bob’s Torana used to be, so we thought we’d add the blue and the white and it looks pretty awesome,” Youlden said.
“The waist line of the HQ is a bit lower than the Torana, so there’s a bit more green than on the original, but we think it’s come up a treat.
“We’ve made some improvements to the car from a performance point of view, but we thought we should do something different with the look of the car too.”
Youlden has shown the livery to Morris, whose name is included on the car alongside his 1979 Bathurst co-driver Dieter Quester.
“I sent a picture of it to Bob when it was nearly done and he loved it,” Youlden said.
“I’ve spoken to him at length about those times and we’d love to get him along to Bathurst this October so he can see it in person – he’d be a bit of an ambassador which would be sensational.
“We’re especially keen to run the car at Bathurst given the 10th anniversary commemorations around Brocky that will be going on.
“He and Bob had some great battles over the years and I think this is a pretty cool tribute to both of them.
“I’ve even got ‘Morris-Quester’ on the side of the car as a tribute to their Bathurst campaign.”
Other retro colours currently in the TCM field include Steven Johnson’s Ian Geoghegan-inspired Ford Falcon XY and Bruce Williams’ 1975 Peter Brock/Brian Sampson Bathurst winning tribute Torana.
John Bowe leads the TCM standings by 59 points ahead of Eddie Abelnica, with Glenn Seton another five adrift in third.
Johnson slipped from second to fifth after an engine failure ruled him out of the most recent round at Queensland Raceway, now 167 points behind Bowe.
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