Perkins Engineering

Perkins Engineering was a team contesting the Australian V8 Supercar Championship Series, operating as an active racing team between 1986 and 2008. From 2009 onwards, the involvement of Perkins Engineering in the championship wounded back into a supply relationship with the newly formed Kelly Racing.

Team history

After being the engineering mastermind behind the hat-trick of Bathurst 1000 victories for the Holden Dealer Team in 1982, 1983 and 1984, Larry Perkins left the team in mid-1985 after disagreements with his team boss Peter Brock over the direction of the team. At the time, Brock and his health professional Dr. Eric Dowker (a Chiropractor by profession) were moving into what many believed to be pseudoscience, which would eventually lead to the "Energy Polarizer" being fitted to the HDT's road cars, leading Holden to sever ties with the team. According to some rumors' that surfaced in mid-1985, Perkins allegedly found an Energy Polarizer attached to the HDT Commodore that he raced in the Lakeside round of the 1985 Australian Touring Car Championship. As part of his contract with the team, Perkins was in charge of the HDT's race car preparation and had final say on what was fitted to the cars. Although both Perkins and Brock maintained that the split was amicable, it was rumored that the Lakeside incident was the final straw for Perkins who left the team at the end of the ATCC. He filled the roles of co-driver and engineer at Dick Johnson Racing in the endurance races where he partnered Dick Johnson at both Sandown and Bathurst in a Group A Ford Mustang and would actually qualify the team's spare Mustang in the top 10, but the car was withdrawn immediately after Hardies Heroes. Perkins then established Perkins Engineering out of a small factory in Roberna Street in the Melbourne suburb of Moorabbin commencing operations in early 1986.

Whilst the team never won a championship, the team was widely recognized as "endurance race specialists", with many victories in 500 km and 1000 km endurance races across Australia. Perkins Engineering was a supplier of components and fully built cars to customers in the Group A and early V8 Supercar eras. It was mainly through this customer base that Perkins Engineering made its money and also enabled Larry himself to go racing.

1980s

With sponsorship from Enzed Fluid Connectors, and extra support from the Giltrap Motor Group from New Zealand, Perkins Engineering debuted a Holden VK Commodore SS Group A at the Castrol 500 at Sandown Raceway with David Parsons co-driving. Parsons again co-drove at Bathurst, though the team lost an hour of the race when the cars gearbox was replaced. Parsons also co-drove with Perkins at the Wellington 500 in January 1987, before Perkins decided he needed a more experienced co-driver after Parsons crashed the Commodore and Larry teamed with World Champion Denny Hulme to win the Pukekohe 500 at the Pukekohe Park Raceway south of Auckland. Perkins campaigned the VK through the 1987 season with mixed results, though with some justification he did claim he had the "fastest Group A Commodore in the world". He was also the only driver to finish each round of the ATCC and generally out-performed both Brock and Allan Grice who were driving the newer model VL Commodore Group A SS. Following a crash on just lap 2 of the 1987 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst, Perkins was forced to debut his new VL Commodore Group A SS a week later at the Bob Jane T-Marts 500 at Calder Park. For both races, Denny Hulme would once again co-drive with Perkins.

When the relationship between Holden and Peter Brock broke down in the course of 1987, Holden Motorsport was established to oversee Holden's ongoing motorsport program. Perkins Engineering was the first team signed under the program, and Perkins was the first driver signed though support from Holden was reported to be more moral than financial. When the first "official" factory Holden team commenced for the 1988 season as Holden Special Vehicles, it was actually a re-branding of Perkins Engineering, combined with HSV owners Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) out of England.

The team ran the 1987 HDT VL during the 1988 Australian Touring Car Championship while the evolution car was homologated and prepared for later in the season. In the 1988 ATCC, the Commodores were really just making up the numbers against the Ford Sierra RS500s and the best Perkins could manage was a 3rd at Sandown (during the season, Perkins had actually been testing one of the new fuel injected Commodores and became increasingly frustrated at the delays in debuting the car). Jeff Allam and Armin Hahne, both with long associations with TWR, joined the team for the Sandown 500, with Perkins and Hulme sharing a brand new Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV while Allam and Hahne drove Perkins old VL updated to TWR specs. Hahne, who in 1988 had been driving a Ford Sierra for Walter Wolf Racing in the European Touring Car Championship and the German DTM series, was a late replacement for Tom Walkinshaw, who was unable to drive as scheduled due to the death of his father. Perkins and Hulme had a strong race at Sandown, finishing second behind the Sierra of Allan Moffat and Gregg Hansford, while the Allam/Hahne car failed to finish.

Walkinshaw joined the team for the Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst in a car built by TWR in England and shipped out to Australia. That particular Commodore had made its debut in the 1988 Tourist Trophy at Silverstone just a week before the Sandown 500. The upgraded VL from Sandown was used as the HSV team's spare car at Bathurst. This third car was originally slated to be driven by John Harvey and Win Percy, however, Percy made other arrangements, teaming up with his Nissan Europe teammate Allan Grice in a Roadways Racing Commodore. Harvey was not enthused at being the team's third driver after spending eight years as the number two behind Peter Brock at the Holden Dealer Team, and eventually teamed with Kevin Bartlett in a Bob Forbes owned VL Commodore SV.

Bathurst would prove to be a disaster for the team. In the race, the British built Commodore with Tom Walkinshaw driving lasted only 5 laps before retiring with rear suspension failure after a pit stop where the left rear wheel changer was lucky not to be seriously injured when the car was let off its onboard air jacks too early. The Perkins/Hulme car qualified inside the top 10 (the only V8 to do so) and ran strongly in second or third place for most of the race until engine failure on lap 137. However, the real drama started at the end of official qualifying when Walkinshaw put in a protest against the fastest Sierras (only the Australian built examples). This was counter protested by Dick Johnson Racing team manager Neal Lowe (who had taken over Perkins old role as race engineer/driver at the HDT in 1986) who protested all three HSV team cars. While the Sierras were all eventually cleared, two of the three HSV team cars, the two built by Perkins in Australia, were found to have illegal modifications to the Commodore's steering rack and were disqualified, though as one car had been withdrawn before qualifying and the Perkins/Hulme/Walkinshaw race car had failed to finish (Walkinshaw invoked a clause in the teams contract which forced a reluctant Perkins to let him drive the car in the race), the race results were not altered to show the disqualification. The DQ of the Perkins built cars raised some eyebrows from his fellow competitors as Larry had been vocal throughout the 1988 ATCC about the legality of the Sierras and had been pushing for the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport to enforce Group A rules.

In a 2013 interview, Perkins claimed that the 1988 Tooheys 1000 was "the one that got away", claiming that Walkinshaw had disobeyed orders regarding gear changes and engine revs which caused the cars failure on lap 137. However, had Perkins gone on to win the race, the No. 10 cars ultimate disqualification would have been a public relations disaster for Holden in the wake of the split with the Holden Dealer Team and its highly popular boss Peter Brock, and because the Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV road car had been many months late in being released (it was actually released to the public after the VL models successor, the Holden VN Commodore had been released causing it to be already out of date). Critics generally believe that the cars failure to finish saved Holden from a public backlash at having a factory backed winning car disqualified from the countries highest profile domestic motor race.

At the end of 1988 Perkins and Hulme went on to stage a one-two victory in the Group A support race at the 1988 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide in November. After the leading Dick Johnson Racing Sierras of Johnson and John Bowe suffered fuel pick-up problems, Perkins and Hulme had a fairly comfortable second half of the race.

1989 saw the dissolution of the HSV/Perkins Engineering arrangement, as it was only intended to be a 12-month contract. With no sponsor, and limited budget, Perkins Engineering ran one of its 1988 cars in only the Victorian-based races of the 1989 ATCC at Sandown and Winton, and the future did not look bright for the team. However, Perkins had become the preferred supplier of Group A Commodores for most of the Australian privateers.

However, Holden came to rescue, and once again contracted Perkins Engineering to run its "factory" team for the 1989 endurance races. This was the first team to be known as the Holden Racing Team, albeit still a rebranding of Perkins Engineering. Win Percy, Neil Crompton, and Steve Harrington joined Perkins in the team for the 1989 .05 - 500 at Sandown, however Harrington was replaced by 1988 Bathurst winner Tomas Mezera for the Tooheys 1000. Once again the Commodores were merely making up the numbers against the increasingly fast and numerous Sierras, as well as the HR31 Nissan Skylines, with the Perkins/Mezera car finishing sixth and the Percy/Crompton car, seventh. The 1989 Tooheys 1000 was the first time that no Holden had appeared in the Top 10 runoff for pole position since the Saturday morning event had been introduced at the 1978 race. The Perkins/Mezera car qualified 11th, while Percy/Crompton qualified 18th.

Upon reaching the Adelaide Grand Prix support races, tensions between Perkins Engineering and Tom Walkinshaw were again heightened when Walkinshaw insisted that the two cars be driven by Win Percy (who would become the HRT team manager and lead driver in 1990) and television commentator turned part-time racer Neil Crompton, shuffling Perkins out of a drive in his own team.

Rumor's abounded that Perkins Engineering would take over the engineering and running of two Ford Sierra RS500s for close friend Allan Moffat, with sponsorship from Moffat's existing backer ANZ Bank. This of course never happened, with Perkins Engineering continuing to run the VL SV into 1990, while Moffat continuing his association with his Sierra's car builder, Swiss tuning ace Ruedi Eggenberger.

1990s

The Moffat/ANZ rumor's did not come to fruition, and the team built a new plain white VL Commodore SS Group A SV for the 1990 season. Aside from some minor sponsorship from longtime supporters such as Castrol, the car's main "sponsor" was "Perkins Engineering", and it ran the entire 1990 season this way. A few other minor sponsors were picked up for the endurance races, where Tomas Mezera co-drove. After a good showing at the 1990 Sandown 500

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