Having already wrapped up the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship on the Gold Coast, Shane van Gisbergen will attempt to further enhance his credentials by emulating two of Holden’s biggest heroes in Adelaide.
The scene of many come from behind fairytale victories, two remain talked about to this day more than 20 years since.
A mistake during late in qualifying dropped van Gisbergen to the back of the grid as he will aim to replicate the efforts of Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife in making a great Adelaide comeback.
Extra significance will be placed as its Holden’s last stand in the Repco Supercars Championship as it enters a new era of General Motors versus Ford warfare under the Chevrolet brand.
Holden’s goodbye has been long as it bids farewell five years after the last locally produced Commodore rolled off the Elizabeth assembly line just north of Adelaide and nearly three years since the brand was discontinued.
The opportunity is there to add one last mark on Holden’s long and illustrious racing history.
However, if van Gisbergen takes victory in today’s race it won’t be the first time a Holden has scythed through the field in Adelaide.
On the way to his third V8 Supercars Championship victory in 1999, Craig Lowndes raced from last-to-first in the second leg of the inaugural Adelaide 500 as a solely domestic event.
In the Saturday race, Lowndes tangled with privateer Danny Osborne and as a result the Colourscan Ford Falcon heavily contacted the wall. This led to Lowndes being disqualified, however the Sunday race demonstrated his class as he took a popular victory.
The following year, Lowndes’ team-mate Mark Skaife also performed a ‘last-to-first’ effort.
An engine failure on Saturday left Skaife on the backfoot after the opening 250km race, but in a repeat the efforts of Lowndes from the previous year it was another miraculous Holden Racing Team win in Adelaide.
Can history repeat in 2022? Will Shane van Gisbergen have the pace and class to get from 25th to first this afternoon? We will find when the green lights go out at 3:15pm ACDT.