LARRY PERKINS

Larry's touring car career began in 1977 at Sandown and he placed third at Bathurst in a Holden A9X Torana with Peter Janson that year. He then went on to rack up three Bathurst wins while team manager for the Holden Dealer Team, co-driving with Peter Brock (1982, Commodore VH), Brock and John Harvey (1983, Commodore VH) and Brock (1984, Commodore VK).

There were three more Bathurst wins as team principal for his own Castrol Perkins Racing team, with Larry co-driving Gregg Hansford (1993, Commodore VP), Russell Ingall (1995, Commodore VR) and Ingall (1997, Commodore VS) into victory lane in his own Perkins Engineering-built and prepared Commodores.

Larry has also been on the Bathurst podium as a runner-up three times, with Janson (1979, Torana A9X), Janson (1980, Commodore VC) and Ingall (1998, Commodore VT). In addition, he took third place at Bathurst three times, driving with Janson (1977, Torana A9X), Tomas Mezera (1990, Commodore VL) and Hansford (1994, Commodore VP).

He also has three Sandown endurance race wins to his credit, after claiming the number one podium spot with Brock (1984, Commodore VK), Steve Harrington (1992, Commodore VL) and Ingall (1998, Commodore VS). The Queensland 500 proved to be another successful hunting ground, Larry taking a win with Ingall (1999, Commodore VT) and also a solid second place (2001, Commodore VX).

For 2002, the Castrol Perkins Racing team is fielding three VX Commodores for Larry (chassis 040) and his two contracted drivers, Ingall (chassis 039) and twice Bathurst winner Steven Richards (chassis 038), with all three scheduled to compete in the Australian Grand Prix support event and all 13 rounds of the V8 Supercar Championship Series.

Prior to this season, Ingall's tally of ATCC/SCS round wins stood at eight, while Larry had four and Richards three. As far as podium finishes were concerned, Ingall had 21 to his credit, Larry 17 and Richards 5.

Between 1977 and 2001, Larry had racked up 146 starts, while Ingall had faced the starter 69 times since 1996 and Richards 61, also since 1996, with Larry and Ingall claiming pole once each. Additionally, Ingall was a Shoot Out contender 16 times, while Larry made the cut nine times and Richards seven.