Saturday Sleuthing: The Last Perkins Winner

The V8 Supercars Championship visits Symmons Plains in Tasmania next weekend so today on Saturday Sleuthing we’ve selected a car to investigate that won at the 2.4-kilometre circuit and represents the last chapter of a significant era in tin-top racing in Australia.

Since he established Perkins Engineering in 1986 after leaving the Holden Dealer Team, Larry Perkins’ team produced in excess of 45 Commodore racecars across the Group A and V8 Supercar eras.

All up, Perkins Engineering claimed 31 ATCC/V8 Supercars Championship race wins with the last coming at the circuit that hosts next weekend’s event – Symmons Plains in Tasmania – in 2008.

So what happened to that car taken to something of an upset victory in the opening race of that year’s round by Todd Kelly in Jack Daniel’s colours?

Earlier that season, it debuted in Kelly’s hands as the #7 Jack Daniel’s Racing Commodore at the Perth 400 at Barbagallo. 

Kelly had joined Perkins’ team that season after five seasons in the factory Holden Racing Team and over a decade driving under the TWR Australia/Walkinshaw Racing banner. 

His new car – PE 047 - been finished for some time and had originally been planned to debut it at the Melbourne Grand Prix event.

However, the team elected to run its existing cars and test developmental front and rear suspension changes that were trialled in Hamilton that year before being put onto the new car before its debut.

“Hamilton proved we were on the right track with the upgrades, so the time was right to introduce the new car,” said Kelly at the time.

“We really only previously had a top 15 car, but I'm confident we will now be well inside the top 10.”

He was right too, given the car finished in the top 10 in two of the three races in Perth on its debut weekend.

Kelly drove the chassis for the remainder of the season – the last in which Perkins’ team competed before Todd, brother Rick and parents John and Margaret created Kelly Racing – including at the endurance races where Shane Price acted as co-driver.

However, in the penultimate round in Tasmania, Kelly and PE047 qualified 10th with inclement weather threatening at the start of the Saturday afternoon 50-lap opening race.

The #7 black Commodore was a rocket in the chilly conditions, charging through to be third by the end of lap two and second on lap four as he picked off Jamie Whincup and set after leader Garth Tander.

He took the lead on lap 12 when Tander pitted but lost the lead later when the rain came and the leaders all pitted for wet tyres on separate laps.

Re-joining second behind Whincup, the 2005 Bathurst winner zeroed in on the championship leader and got by on lap 35 to drive away and claim what remains his last V8 Supercars Championship race victory.

“I haven't won a round or anything but that one little race win is probably the most rewarding result I've had ... probably second to Bathurst with Skaifey (in 2005),” Kelly told AAP post-race.

“A lot of the guys had almost been reduced to tears to try and make this happen so to walk in the garage it was pretty hard not to shed a tear after the year we've had.”

He finished the weekend as round runner-up to Whincup after a pair of third-placed finishes in the two Sunday races and made his last start in the car for the season in the season-finale at Oran Park – the last V8 Supercar event at the now-defunct Sydney circuit and last for Perkins Engineering as an entrant/team.

Kelly Racing was created for 2009, utilising many components from the Perkins organisation, including the cars and PE 047 became the #11 Dodo entry for Larry’s son Jack. 

He raced it through to the endurance races at Phillip Island and Bathurst, where it was re-stickered as the #15 Jack Daniel’s car and driven by Ben Collins (the Brit perhaps best known as formerly being The Stig on the BBC Top Gear series) and Nathan Pretty.

It returned to Perkins’ hands in Bet247 livery for Phillip Island and the Sydney season finale before becoming Tony Ricciardello’s #16 car in 2010 run in both Supermax and Stratco colours that season.

Becoming a spare car in 2011, it was wheeled back out for Hamilton for Rick Kelly after his new car had been damaged in an accident at Albert Park.

Despite being an older car, it didn’t stop Kelly from winning the Saturday race after a rain shower had affected the qualifying order – it was also Kelly Racing’s first V8 Supercar race win. 

Kelly ran it at Barbagallo before reverting to his repaired, regular chassis and this car next appeared in Crimsafe colours with Grant Denyer at the Ipswich Dunlop Series round. 

It was then the #77 Shannons Mars Supercar Showdown car at Bathurst where Denyer shared with the youngest-ever driver to compete in the Bathurst 1000 – Cameron Waters.

Waters ran it in the Sandown DVS round later that year and then again briefly in 2012 under the Dreamtime Racing banner before the program stopped due to lack of funds.

The Kelly team wheeled it back out later that season after Karl Reindler’s car having been damaged on the Gold Coast.

Originally this car was to become the Western Australian’s for the Abu Dhabi trip, though it actually became Greg Murphy’s #51 Pepsi Max car for the F1 event, as well as Winton and the season finale at Sydney – his last drive as a full-time V8SC driver.

The chassis was sold to Gary Collins at the completion of the 2012 season and it appeared on track at the Winton Historic meeting last year.

Collins races an ex-Holden Racing Team, Win Percy 1990 ATCC Commodore VL in Heritage Touring Cars but had PE 047 re-liveried to 2011 Jack Daniel’s colours – a reminder of its victory in that season on the streets of Hamilton in New Zealand.

PE 047 sure has had its fair share of liveries and pilots over the years, though both Kelly brothers managed to win races aboard it.

Saturday Sleuthing will take a break next weekend as the V8 Supercars head to the Apple Isle for the Tyrepower Tasmania 400 at Symmons Plains.

It will return to the V8 Supercars website on Saturday April 12 with a special story on the restoration of a memorable privateer car from the 1990s. 

Have a car you’d like to suggest for an upcoming edition of Saturday Sleuthing for our V8 Sleuth, Aaron Noonan? Contact the V8 Sleuth via the following methods:

Email: [email protected]Twitter: http://twitter.com/v8sleuthFacebook: www.facebook.com/v8sleuthTo visit the V8 Sleuth’s website: www.v8sleuth.com.au