2010 Toll Holden Racing Team V8 Supercar Commodores unveiled

By Tim Beissmann | January 20th, 2010

The Toll Holden Racing Team unveiled its 20^th anniversary edition V8 Supercar Commodores today ahead of the 2010 V8 season.

The aggressive livery, designed by Holden Design’s Peter Hughes, is an evolution of past HRT designs.

Sinister black skirts inspired by the 2008 Bathurst HRTs outline the new 3D lion side graphic and underscore the distinctly new bright racing red.

HRT driver and last season’s Barry Sheen medallist for the best and fairest racer, Will Davison, was clearly excited about his new car and the upcoming season at this morning’s Fishermans Bend launch.

“2010 is a very special year in the team’s history and to be able to race such a stunning and tough looking car will be an honour.

“I am going into the new season knowing exactly what I want to achieve, and my expectations are high,” he said.

Teammate, Garth Tander, said the team will be looking to improve on its seven pole positions and six race wins from 2009 in the coming season.

“With Will on board, 2009 was a successful year, but it is a sign of the determination within Toll HRT that despite all that we won we still aren’t satisfied as we did not win the driver’s title.

“We appreciate what we achieved, but Will and I are not resting on our laurels. There have been a lot of changes over the off-season and we are looking to exploit those, we are going to push harder than ever before,” he said.

Holden Chairman and Managing Director, Alan Batey, said he was proud that Toll HRT has become synonymous with motor racing excellence over its 20 year history.

“At Holden we are incredibly proud of HRT’s achievements and are confident they will build on their winning heritage in 2010.

“Our association with the team is incredibly important for the Holden brand and as we enter this new decade, HRT will be right there next to us,” he said.

The Holden Racing Team made its debut as the official factory team of Holden with then-team manager Win Percy as its first driver at Round 1 of the 1990 Australian Touring Car Championship at Amaroo Park in Sydney.

Later that year, Percy and Allan Grice went on to record HRT’s first win – the Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama.

Since then, the team has gone on to amass a record unmatched by any other team, including 78 poles, 168 race wins, six Bathurst 1000 victories (1990, 96, 2001, 02, 05, 09) and six V8 Supercar Championships (1996, 98, 99,2000, 01, 02).

Davison and Tander will hit the track for the first time in their new look Toll Holden Racing Team Commodores at Winton Motor Raceway for the team’s official pre-season test on February 1, with the 2010 V8 Supercar Championship Series kicking off in Abu Dhabi on February 18-20.

Steve

Yawn!
Dave

Interesting that Tander keeps number 2 even though Davison finished second in the Championship.

Muse

Dude, that’s not how it works – Only The champ gets to keep no. 1, everyone else keeps their ‘own’ number.

ha ha

sorry but the wheels dont do it for me….maybe they should of added some chrome bling…lol
lazza

Once they add another manufacturer into this it’ll get more interesting. C’mon V8 Supercar organizers, it’s getting a little boring… Even the Bathurst bogans must be getting tired of the two man super-taxi race too!

David

Since when has it been a two man race? There are a dozen or more teams competing. Put it this way, HRT and Triple-8 will both be driving Holdens this year, but they’ll still be fierce rivals.

lazza

Sorry… I meant a two _make_ race…

Chaser

I totally agree, the two car challenge is boring. AVESCO should look at the 1990′s of the ATCC where it was mixed up a bit. That would show how good the drivers are dealing with other categories on the track. If Brock, Johnson, Skaife, Lowndes, could do it 1994 then surely these new fresh facecs could do it.

Adam

I want to watch the JGTC….. I was a fan of the V8s, but am slowly fading away

toxic_horse

Agreed, I would rather watch the traffic drive past the front of my house .
V8 supercars have become so boring.

Jeff

Totally agree I`m not a fan, but plenty of people seem to enjoy it.

Alex

Whats changed? Looks the same as last year, and the year before, and the year before, and the year before…. *YAWN*
Devil’s Advocate

Good to see HRT are a diverse team with their driver line up. With the 2009 Barry Sheene ‘best and fairest’ driving medal winner in Will Davison and the ‘dirtiest’ top level driver in Garth Tander. IMHO Tander may be one of the best drivers out there, but he is FAR from one of the fairest!

Mad Max

Really? Why is GT a dirty driver? I can’t remember any stand out bad driving from him in the last couple of years.

Devil’s Advocate

Just off the top of my head without too much thinking the blocking and swerving in front of/beside JW at Barbagello on the back straight when GT was about to be lapped late last year was not only dirty, but down-right dangerous on that part of the track. Not the kind of driving befitting of a true champion. It has not been the first time he has done some dubious blocking etc when he hasn’t been in contention. Bathurst last year was another example of some of his dirty tactics. This was even to “fellow Holden drivers”.

Just for information I do not support either Ford or Holden in this form of racing as in all honesty, it is basically a battle of the teams/drivers as the cars are basically the same. So similar in fact that they share more parts with each other than what they do with the road cars they are supposed to represent. I barrack for the drivers, not the “brand” of the car. In other words, I am not blinded by ‘brand loyalty’ when it comes to his suspect driving. In fact, Will Davison is one of my favourite drivers, along with JW and Frosty. GT has many talents and is easily one of the best drivers in the field, however being a fair driver is not one of them!
Joker

Remember The Final round from a few years ago? GT: “err…theres something wrong with my car…it keeps blocking off Lowdnesy!”…. “oh…Rick Kelly is out in front now??”….”what…nothing wrong with my car actually”… Not to mention TWR’s attitute. Win at all costs. One of the Dirtiest races I’ve seen in recent history…I still remember Tom Walkinshaw saying to Rick Kelly on the Radio.. “We don’t need the car for next year…”

Joker

Please tell me what it is about that design that would tell me it’s commemorative to HRT’s 20th Year in Motor sport? It looks the same as every other VE HRT Commodore that’s come and gone. Observation, not bias.
Mike

V8 Supercars is Australian born and bread which is Holden and Ford. Fantastic, love it and I don’t want Toyota in their. HRT car looks fantastic but I’m going for Murph and Ingall this year. Hope they give HRT and Team Vodaphone heaps to worry about.

Andrew M

Yeah I too hope the smaller teams give the tough nuts a real run.

On the blue side I can see DJR being the cat amongst the “commercial” teams, especially since Ford has put them back on the funding list.

On the red side I see PMM up there and BJR as a dark horse to really watch out for especially with the signing of Brighty who was showing great signs last year after finally putting himself in good machinery.

I rather the race teams of old Like Larry perkins racing and DJR. Give me a race team with history and race spirit any day over a fabricated race business like HRT or 888. Even FPR doesnt phase me much being Prodrive derived.

john

When will hyundia bring there v8 powered rear wheel drive sedan to australia and enter this series. A three brand race would be good as it is getting a bit on the boring side of things at the moment.
Andrew M

Oh and interesting to hear QLD raceway has been put back on the calender….
Wonder if CA will run a story on that rather then just running doom “ratings winning” style storys???
robbo

Wow new stickers to cover up a living dinosaur. Way to go!
jeff johnson

V8′s are boring, no two ways about it….shells are all the same look so what’s it got to go with Holden and Ford anyway ?…do Nissan, Toyota really wanna join a bogan racing series anyway?
http://windows jazza mac

im a ford fan but the v8 supercars are getting quite monotnus? the cars are spec restricted so who is really better?? I would not mind sein holden win without the spec restrictions coz then the mighty ford would have to sharpen up and design better racing components and such its always the same front runners and yeah add some more manufacturers and ease the restrictions on teams for car setups and just go racing all sport is just getting plain old SOFT SOFT SOFT in my opinion