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� In the
morning warm up on the race day of the Primus 1000 clasic Jason Bargwaana crashed the HRT
Young Lions car at forest elbow.
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THE VT IS HERE
Mobil HRT Reveals All New
VT Commodore
Media Release : Tuesday, June 16th.
The Mobil Holden Racing Team today unveiled the racing version of Holden's successful VT
Commodore, the realisation of 12 months work by the Team in converting the VT into a
potential race winner.
The vehicle will make its debut in this weekend's round of the Shell Australian Touring
Car Championship at Melbourne's Calder Park Raceway and is to be driven by Mobil HRT
contracted driver Greg Murphy. For this meeting, the new car will carry the racing number
#98.
With Holden Ltd's introduction of the VT Commodore last September, the company wanted its
showroom sales leader to be introduced to V8 Supercar racing as quickly as possible. As
the VT is Holden's first totally new body shell design in a decade, the transition from
road car to race car has been a major exercise and it is one which has taken up the best
part of 12 months work by the Mobil Holden Racing Team.
The design and development of the VT racer has been headed by Mobil HRT's project engineer
Richard Holloway, in conjunction with the Team's Consulting Engineer Ron Harrop and Dencar
Racing Services, while Holden Motor Sport's John Stevenson has been responsible for the
homologation (certification) of the vehicle for racing.
Initial planning for the VT began in June last year, with the project stepping up a gear
after last year's V8 Supercar race at Bathurst. Work on the first body shell began last
December, with Dencar installing the roll cage and various pick-up points to Mobil HRT's
designs.
For an all new car, the VT has been the most public build the Team has ever been involved
with, as all aspects of the vehicle's development has been open to inspection of all other
Holden Ltd supported teams, the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport, the TEGA (Touring
Car Entrants Group of Australia) Technical Committee and the opposition manufacturer,
Ford.
Upon the completion of the body shell and initial painting in mid April, the Mobil Holden
Racing Team's engineers began the long process of turning the shell into a competitive
racing package, all the while knowing a deadline existed that the VT must be ready to race
for the final 3 rounds of the Touring Car Championship, if it was to be certified to
compete in the major long distance races at Sandown and Bathurst later in the year.
At the same time, those technicians were maintaining the preparation and development of
the Team's existing VS Commodores for Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife, which sees the pair
at the forefront of this year's Championship with three rounds to go.
Mobil HRT's normal build time for a racing car is in the vicinity of 10 - 12 weeks,
however with the VT's all new shape, the Team had to start with a "clean sheet"
of paper as few - if any - of the existing VS technical details matched the VT, especially
as the new car is heavier, has a longer wheelbase and wider track which necessitated a
total re-design in this area alone.
In building the VT, the Mobil Holden Racing Team had to at all times consider the base
requirements from the sport's controlling body, which stated that the new vehicle should
be no quicker than the model it replaces. This was done to ensure that all existing racing
Commodores would not be deemed obsolete overnight and also to ensure an orderly
progression from VS to VT over the next few racing seasons.
This ruling particularly affected the aero development of the VT, with the Team's
Aerodynamics and Composites Engineer Peter Schaefer having to blend the profile and under
tray of the front spoiler of the VS to suit the VT, as well as using the same rear wing
cord as the VS on the new model, while dealing with the fact that the rear configuration
of the VT will result in the new race car having less wing area in total than the VS.
Mobil Holden Racing Team Manager Jeff Grech:
"It is important not to expect too much too soon from the VT. It is very, very
different from the VS mod els and its derivatives we've been using for the past decade;
wider, longer, heavier and with less rear wing on the new model, we believe it will take
some time to explore the car's potential fully.
"Despite that, the VT makes for a tremendous looking racing car - I think the best
thing we've ever seen in this country - which is a testament to Holden's design of the
road car in the first place. So much of the Team's resources - mainly human resources -
have gone into this project over the past 10 months or so and I know they are very proud
of what we have achieved in that time. Technically this is the finest car we have ever
built and given sufficient track development time, its performance will match its looks.
"I think all accolades for the VT should go to the Team's technical staff, who have
developed this car while all the time maintaining Craig and Mark's Commodores to be in a
Championship-challenging position. It's a remarkable performance by them.
Mobil HRT has decided to invite Greg Murphy to debut the VT at Calder this weekend,
allowing Lowndes and Skaife to concentrate on the Championship battle which currently sees
Lowndes leading the series by 8 points.
Murphy remains contracted to Mobil HRT this year after his 4th place in the ATCC last
season and his two Sandown and one Bathurst wins with Craig Lowndes in the past two years.
"It's a huge honour to be given this car to drive in its first race meeting and a
very exciting prospect" said Murphy. "As we'll be driving these cars at Sandown
and Bathurst, it's important to come to terms with them as quickly as possible and I
imagine the VT will be quite different to the current cars.
"My job this weekend is to find out how the VT differs and to explain that to the
Mobil HRT engineers. I'm sure Graeme Brown and the people at Bridgestone will be very
interested in the tyre performance on the car too, as we'll have to start making decisions
regarding this year's Bathurst tyre pretty soon.
"It's fair to say I'll be the luckiest test driver at Calder this weekend and as for
racing, we'll just see how things end up after the three races." Murphy concluded.
Crew for the Mobil HRT #98 VT Commodore will come from within the Team. Steve MacDonald
will be crew chief for the weekend, with support from Tony "Fred" Frederiksen,
Dave McDermott and Andrew Cowcher.
After the VT's initial race meeting at Calder, it will revert to either Mark Skaife or
Craig Lowndes to drive in the final two rounds of the Championship at Hidden Valley (NT)
and Oran Park (NSW).
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CASTROL PERKINS RACING will also race their version of the VT at the races mentioned above.