Hot Holdens star at UK Festival of Speed

A pair of legendary Holden race cars have starred at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, knocking off rivals including the Ford Mustang GTD, TWR Supercat and Porsche 911 GT3 R in the final of the timed shoot-out.

The fastest Holden was the 2008 Holden Racing Team (HRT) VE Commodore driving by current British Touring Car Champion Jake Hill, who clocked a 48.35-second run up the narrow 1.86km course. 

That was good enough to come home fifth overall in the 20-car field, won by the 43.22 second run set by a 1030kW electric Ford Supertruck driven by Romain Dumas, who set an unofficial lap record around Bathurst in an electric Ford Transit in 2024. 

The VE Commodore V8 Supercar that Hill drove at Goodwood ran HRT’s 2008 livery and, while it was originally built by the factory Holden team, the car was first raced that season by sister outfit, the HSV Dealer Team, by Rick Kelly.

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New Zealand Supercars star Greg ‘Murph’ Murphy – a four-time Bathurst 1000 winner – was also in top form at the wheel of the Holden Monaro 427C which he co-drove with Peter Brock, Todd Kelly and Jason Bright to win the 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour. 

The Monaro 427C was built by Garry Rogers Motorsport for the Australian Nations Cup Championship, with its crown jewel event a 24-hour race at Mount Panorama, Bathurst.

It was so-named as the road-going Monaro’s 5.7-litre V8 was replaced by a 7.0-litre version – which is 427 cubic inches – with the wild Monaro winning both 24-hour Bathurst races held in 2002 and 2003 and spawning a limited-edition ‘HRT 427’ showroom model.

Running it in its 2003 Bathurst race livery, including Peter Brock’s famous ‘05’ racing number, ‘Murph’ took the red Monaro up the Goodwood hill more than two seconds faster in his last run for a 50.37 time. 

The effort saw the Kiwi jump from 11th in provisional runs to storm home seventh overall, pipping the Ford Mustang GTD of Dirk Muller in the process.

Making it three antipodean top ten results, fellow New Zealander Steven Richards – a five-time Bathurst winner – came home tenth in the Nissan Skyline GTS-R which took the 1990 Australian Touring Car Championship by his father, Jim.

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