Valtteri Bottas will go back in time at the Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival as he is slated to drive a Holden VK Commodore Group A.
Bottas visited the event last year where he drove the 2016 Bathurst 1000 winning Tekno Autosports Holden VF Commodore, but the Finn will go back 30 years as he pilots the ex-Larry Perkins Enzed Fluid Connectors VK.
An early Perkins Engineering build, the VK Commodore was fast out of the box and was shared by 1967 World Drivers’ Championship winner, New Zealand Denny Hulme for Wellington and Bathurst.
Although its race at Bathurst was cut short early by an incident also involving a Dick Johnson Racing Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth, it was the second fastest Commodore in qualifying behind Allan Grice and Win Percy’s Roadways-built VL.
“We can’t think of a better car for Valtteri at this year’s event,” said event director Tim Possingham.
“This car was originally made right here in Adelaide at the Holden factory and then went on to be prepared as a Group A touring car. It has some rich Formula 1 history itself with former Formula 1 world champion Denny Hulme racing the car alongside Larry Perkins. We can’t wait to see Valtteri push this piece of quintessential 1980s Aussie V8 muscle around the Adelaide Motorsport Festival circuit.”
Perkins himself raced in 11 Grand Prix during the late-1970s before returning to Australia by the 1980s aligning with the Holden Dealer Team to take a hat-trick of Bathurst victories alongside Peter Brock.
Perkins Engineering was formed in 1985 and went on to be a touring car mainstay for 20 years adding a further three Bathurst 1000 victories during the 1990s.