Larry Perkins is a name synonymous with Holden motorsport in Australia, but there was an event where he briefly did the unthinkable and raced a Ford.
Perkins won six Bathurst 1000s across a 15-year stretch. After scoring a hat-trick by partnering Peter Brock at the Holden Dealer Team of which he was team manager in the early 1980s, Perkins added three more in the 1990s for his own Castrol-backed operation.
Winning the 1993 event was special for Perkins as not only was it alongside close friend Gregg Hansford, but his VP Commodore was the last to take line honours powered by a Holden V8. While the other leading Holden teams raced Chevrolet engines in 1993, Perkins remained loyal and it paid off until being forced to transfer across not long after.
However, in between his stint at HDT and setting up his own operation, Perkins joined the dark side by linking up with Dick Johnson for the 1985 Great Race.
Perkins had contested two rounds of the Australian Touring Car Championship that year before splitting with Brock mid-season and linking up with his arch-rival.
Johnson was a frontrunner despite not winning a round of the ATCC driving a Ford Mustang sourced from German team Zakspeed. Recruited free-agent Perkins to not only co-drive the Mustang, but to also further develop it in the hope of being more competitive against the dominant JPS BMWs.
Perkins debuted alongside Johnson at the Sandown 500 where the Mustang was quick, but its fragility was displayed after 22 laps.
A broken axle took it out of contention, despite race winner Jim Richards stopping on track and losing laps, while solving a mechanical problem only to storm back to win the 500 alongside Tony Longhurst.
Two Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustangs were entered for the Bathurst 1000, but the slower one of the pair was due to withdraw after the Hardies Heroes Top 10 Shootout as was general practice for some leading teams during the time.
Johnson qualified the lead Mustang in third and Perkins was eighth in the second, with the latter withdrawn.
The 1000 proved a disaster for Johnson and Perkins due to the Mustang enduring slower than expected race pace in addition to a broken oil cooler forcing the entry to the pits early.
Perkins was also forced to nurse the Mustang around the track at the beginning of one of his stints due to a tyre not being fitted probably and it threatening to part company during the lap.
Despite the delays, Johnson and Perkins scored seventh behind the race winning Jaguar XJS run by Tom Walkinshaw Racing won by John Goss partnered by German Armin Hahne.
For the 1986 edition, Perkins was well entrenched in the Holden fold and was to become the factory representative in 1988 when the Lion broke up with Brock.