One Final Roar

As we close in on the last ever Supercars race to feature the Holden badge, it has gotten me thinking about what the brand means to me. It’s difficult to summarise. I didn’t grow up in a ‘car’ family – in fact we didn’t own a car at all for a long time – but in my younger years Holden was everything. I remember Mark Skaife and the Holden Racing Team in their era of domination, watching Greg Murphy complete his Lap of the Gods, and I remember waking up and turning the TV on at 7 a.m. every Bathurst Sunday and wishing I was there. It was a great time.

It was these things and many more that fostered my enthusiasm for that lion emblem. I had the posters. I had the bed sheets. I wore the t-shirts. I bought the model cars. I read the books. And in my spare time, I would dream about the Holden I would own in the future. My life truly was all about Holden.

Despite the prevalence of the brand diminishing from the Australian motoring landscape over the past few years, and even the prospects of the championship itself in question, it felt only right to take this pilgrimage in particular amongst all others. The forecast for weeks leading up to race day was predicting an especially rainy experience. I was secretly hoping for it, because rain adds a unique texture to racing and the cadence of the race which is refreshing to photograph. But while it was unrelenting for Practice and Qualifying (and halted the Top 10 Shootout completely), a rainy Sunday it was not meant to be.

The effects of the rain were felt during the race, though I’m not referring to the opening lap shenanigans on the track. To say the mountain was muddy is an understatement. but I had come prepared and could happily report being almost bone dry for the whole weekend. My cameras weren’t so lucky. Fortunately, however, by the end of 161 laps on Sunday the lenses had cleared enough in time to capture the Lion atop the podium like we hoped for.