Randle honours Larry Perkins with Sandown tribute livery

Thomas Randle will fight for a Grand Final spot carrying the famous colours of Supercars Hall of Fame Larry Perkins.

Tickford Racing driver Randle is one of seven drivers vying for a place at the bp Adelaide Grand Final at this weekend’s Penrite Oil Sandown 500.

Randle will race with a special tribute to Australian motorsport legend Perkins, who raced the green, red, white and black of Castrol to key victories.

Notably, Perkins carried the colours to Bathurst victory in 1993, 1995 and 1997, and also won the Sandown 500 (1992, 1998) and Queensland 500 (1999).

Randle’s standard Castrol livery has been subbed out for the classic ‘saw tooth’ look that Perkins made famous in the 1990s.

Randle will also wear a special retro-styled Castrol race suit and helmet scheme that matches the unique green and gold colours worn by Perkins during his illustrious racing career.

It's not the first time Randle has sported some special Castrol colours: at the 2024 Penrite Oil Sandown 500, the #55 Mustang carried the famous Castrol colours of the TOM's Supra, which raced in Japan's SuperGT Series.

“We’re running the iconic Castrol saw tooth livery on our Ford Mustang for the Sandown 500, and I feel really honoured,” Randle said.

“It’s such an iconic livery from the 1990s with Larry Perkins behind the wheel. Larry is a legend of our sport and the wins he had at Bathurst were all special – the most famous being the last-to-first in 1995.

“Larry had three Bathurst victories in that livery and a Sandown 500 win as well, so it’s probably the perfect time to be running the paint scheme on our Mustang.

“Carrying those iconic colours … hopefully it gives us an extra boost and I want to make Larry and our team proud."

The 2020 Super2 champion also travelled to Perkins’ farm in Cowangie, Victoria. The Perkins family has owned and operated the farm for 105 years.

Perkins added: “I’ve got some good memories from Bathurst with our Castrol cars.

“I always thought that they were good looking cars, if that means anything, but they certainly looked exceptional when it was first across the line!

“Thomas’ car looks very much like my 1995 Bathurst winner and I think the designer has done a very good job. I hope he can have the same success at Sandown this weekend.

“It was nice to host Thomas at our family farm in Cowangie ahead of Sandown. We’ve been here for 105 years. My grandad first took on the land when he came back from World War 1, and my dad was born on the farm.

“I grew up here, I went to school down the road and now I’m back living here. I have a lot of memories and I still really enjoy it.”

The new-look Ford will hit the track at Sandown on Friday. Tickets are on sale now.