TWELVE months ago Lee Holdsworth was driving his way to a top 10 finish in the V8 Supercars championship for Ford, but now as he pilots one of the new Mercedes for Erebus Racing he finds himself way off the pace.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The man who placed eighth in the 2012 championship will head to Bathurst in 24th – a whopping 1272 points behind current series leader Jamie Whincup.
But there is something that could make Holdsworth’s season go from a struggle to one that could be considered a success.
That is winning the Bathurst 1000, and it is not as unrealistic as it may have appeared two months ago.
At the first leg of the Endurance Cup – the Sandown 500 – the Mercedes Holdsworth shared with Craig Baird placed fourth.
It was Mercedes’ best finish so far this season and with both Holdsworth and Baird having driven plenty of laps at Mount Panorama in the past they will line up in this year’s 161-lap endurance event as contenders.
“We all dream of getting up there, we all dream of winning this race and from a very young age. If you are not going to win in the championship, I think this one is probably equal to winning the championship, winning the Bathurst 1000,” Holdsworth said.
“Mount Panorama means so much to me, you know for all drivers I think it is we all aspire to make the podium.
“To take out the win especially and stand on top of the podium I could imagine would be a feeling you can only get once in your life.
“So it would be a moment you would take through the rest of your life.”
Holdsworth and Baird guided their Ford Falcon FG to eighth at Mount Panorama last year, finishing some 28 seconds down on victors Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell.
It was the same position they claimed at Sandown.
But this time around Holdsworth and Baird will both be desperate to do better than Sandown.
To earn Mercedes its first podium since returning to the series would be an historic moment, but to go even better and win would be huge.
It would also mark the first Bathurst 1000 win for both Irwin Racing men.
Baird thought he had a win in 1997 alongside Paul Morris in a BMW 320i, but the Australian Drivers Club
successfully protested on a technicality that the New Zealand native was in the car for more than the allowable three- and-a-half hours.
The closest Holdsworth has come to winning the Great Race was in 2009 when driving for Garry Rogers Motor-sport.
That year he and Michael Caruso placed third behind winners Will Davison and Garth Tander plus runners-up Cameron McConville and Jason Richards in an all-Holden podium.
“That was a pretty special moment standing up the top there and seeing over tens of thousands of people below. I was cheering and carrying on and that was something I had always dreamed of doing – being able to spray the champagne up the top there and especially being able to do it with a good mate.
“That was an amazing race. Robbo [Caruso] had a spin over the top there that everyone remembers through Reid Park and he is probably the only one to ever get away with it without any damage.
“We came back from nearly a lap down. We both drove our hearts out and came back to finish in the top three – so pretty special moment, one I will always remember.”
Holdsworth just hopes he can have another moment to remember at Bathurst this year – it would certainly erase the frustration of what has been a tough season.
