Triple Eight, WAU to run Holden tribute liveries

Red Bull Ampol Racing and Walkinshaw Andretti will run tribute liveries in Adelaide to help farewell Holden from Supercars.

The VALO Adelaide 500 will be the last event for Holden before the brand is replaced by Chevrolet in 2023.

Holden, with 615 race wins, is the most successful marque in ATCC/Supercars history.

The iconic Australian brand has won a record 35 Bathurst 1000s, including the last three.

Triple Eight and WAU are Holden’s two most successful teams, and both have previously carried factory backing.

WAU was Holden’s flagship team under the Holden Racing Team banner between 1990 and 2016.

Skaife wins in 2002

Triple Eight has raced Commodores since 2010, and has won eight drivers’ titles in Holdens.

While racing Holdens, the two teams combine for 14 drivers’ titles and 15 teams’ titles.

Of Triple Eight's 240 wins, 189 have come in Commodores. All 187 of WAU’s wins have come in Commodores.

Combined, the two teams have taken a staggering 376 (61 per cent) of Holden's 615 race wins.

The two teams also combine for 32 wins from the 46 races held on the Adelaide streets.

HRT first won in Adelaide in 1999, and last won courtesy of James Courtney in 2016.

Since 2018, the team has been known as WAU — and Team Principal Bruce Stewart is determined to win Holden’s last race.

“We are really excited to show off our HRT tribute livery in Adelaide,” Stewart told Supercars.com.

"As a team, we want to send Holden and the lion off in the final race in the right manner, and we’re sure the fans are going to love it.

“It’s been a special relationship this team has shared with Holden for over three decades.

“While I can’t give too much away, it will pay homage our history together.

“There’s no mistaking we want to be the last Holden winner in Supercars, and Adelaide is a really fitting place to send it off.”

Standing in WAU’s way is the all-conquering Triple Eight squad, which has won both championships and Bathurst this year.

Whincup won in 2020, days after Holden's axing

Stewart’s opposite at Triple Eight, Jamie Whincup, won Triple Eight’s first Adelaide race in a Holden in 2011.

Arguably Whincup’s greatest victory came in a Commodore on the streets of Adelaide in 2012.

Whincup, Holden’s most successful driver ever with 85 wins, cited the significance of his own team’s special livery.

“It’s the last time a Holden vehicle will be on the track in Supercars,” Whincup told Supercars.com.

“We thought it would be fitting to do a livery, and more so in Adelaide as well.

“Adelaide is a big part of the Holden culture, with the plant at Elizabeth a significant part of Holden’s legacy in Australia.

“Those two factors have led to us to do something special, and we’ll reveal that next week in Adelaide."

The 2022 Repco Supercars Championship will conclude on the Adelaide streets on December 1-4.