A range of special liveries and decals are set to appear at the Valo Adelaide 500 to mark Holden’s final Repco Supercars Championship event.
With Gen3 regulations coming into effect next year, the 2022 finale will be the last event for the famous Lion at the top level of Australian motorsport.
Fittingly, it will take place in the city in which Holden was born, around a kilometre from the Adelaide Parklands Circuit, and where it made cars in the suburb of Elizabeth until October 2017.
Both Walkinshaw Andretti United and Triple Eight Race Engineering have now committed to special liveries for the weekend.
They are arguably the most significant squads in the Australian marque’s history, with the former competing as the Holden Racing Team for almost three decades.
Triple Eight then became the official factory squad, and is the homologation team for Chevrolet, the General Motors brand which will replace Holden on the grid, going forward.
For WAU, however, it is something of a double farewell in so much that it is switching to Ford Mustangs next year.
Team Principal Bruce Stewart told Supercars’ official website, “We are really excited to show off our HRT tribute livery in Adelaide.
“As a team, we want to send Holden and the lion off in the final race in the right manner, and we’re sure the fans are going to love it.
“It’s been a special relationship this team has shared with Holden for over three decades.
“While I can’t give too much away, it will pay homage our history together.
“There’s no mistaking we want to be the last Holden winner in Supercars, and Adelaide is a really fitting place to send it off.”
His counterpart at Triple Eight, Jamie Whincup, told Supercars’ official website, “It’s the last time a Holden vehicle will be on the track in Supercars.
“We thought it would be fitting to do a livery, and more so in Adelaide as well.
“Adelaide is a big part of the Holden culture, with the plant at Elizabeth a significant part of Holden’s legacy in Australia.
“Those two factors have led to us to do something special, and we’ll reveal that next week in Adelaide.”
The WAU and Triple Eight liveries are unlikely to be the only tributes from Holden teams in Adelaide, with the latter’s Shane van Gisbergen also floating the idea of using his right to #1 on his ZB Commodore to mark the occasion.
Matt Stone Racing, which was in fact the last team to field a VF Commodore in the Australian Touring Car Championship, will sport ‘Final Roar’ stickers on the endplates of its Truck Assist-backed ZBs. (Above)
It will also carry new branding from electrical appliances retailer Retravision on the bonnets of the cars driven by Todd Hazelwood and Jack Le Brocq.
Practice at Adelaide starts on Thursday, December 1.
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