The Lion roared one more time in Australian touring car racing, with Holden sweeping both races at the Adelaide 500 finale.
It was the perfect ending to Holden’s time in the sport - with the Chevrolet Camaro replacing the Commodore in the Gen3 era - with one-two finishes in both 250km races, fittingly from the two teams that had come to define the brand’s presences in the sport over the past 30 years.
The retro Holden Racing Team-inspired livery for Chaz Mostert’s Walkinshaw Andretti United Commodore seemed a good luck charm, helping him score victory in Saturday’s race. What’s more he led home teammate Scott Pye, making it a one-two finish for the team that was Holden’s factory outfit from the 1988 until the end of the 2016 season.
Sunday’s race appropriately finished with another victory for Holden and a driver named Broc. While not related to the late, great Peter Brock, Triple Eight Race Engineering’s rising star, Broc Feeney, rewarded the team’s faith in him by claiming his maiden Supercars race win in his debut season.
Scoring his breakthrough Supercars win at Adelaide is also a neat coincidence with the man he replaced in the #88 car - Jamie Whincup. The seven-time champion scored his first win at the same track in 2008.
Shane van Gisbergen may not have won either race but he was the biggest winner of the weekend - officially claiming the Supercars’ championship trophy. And he did it in spectacular fashion, doing a burnout around the trophy and then grabbing it while continuing to smoke the tyres of his Holden Commodore.
In the end Holden finished with 617 ATCC/Supercars race wins, 23 ATCC/Supercars Driver’s championships and 15 V8 Supercar Manufacturers’ championships.
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