Hybrid VK
Ijust nished watching the 1984 Bathurst 1000 and I noticed a no-spoilers, no- ares VK Commodore. It was entered by Big Rooster/ Queensland Highway Patrol and driven by Lester Smerdon and Wayne Park. I couldn’t
nd any info on the car. It wasn’t entered as a Group A but, as you can see, it’s not really a Group C either.
During the race when the car was on screen the commentators mentioned that it was close to Police Interceptor spec (BT1?) and the race team had had some help from Peter Brock in the prep, and he (HDT?) was keeping an eye on how it went. Seems like a smart idea seeing as how Group A was the main game the following year.
I’m guessing the Commodore wasn’t yet homologated for Group A, so it couldn’t be raced as such. But if it was what would be a Group A Commodore, then heres a few questions: Did the car have factory help? I notice not too many Holdens had ‘Commodore’ across the top of the windscreen, but HDT did. Group C Commodores had been around for almost four years, so why enter such an obviously outgunned and untried racecar? It did nish well, however – started 53rd(!) and nished 17th. If it was Group A it would have nished third in class. This car could have been the rst Group A race Commodore (sorta).
As a side note, the ‘84 race had a King (Brocky) a Captain (Janson) a Prince (Prince Leopold von Bayern of Bavaria) and a Senior Constable (Smerdon)
Steve Pacey
ED: It sort of was the rst Group A Commodore – the shell was built to Group A specs but the mechanicals largely consisted of existing Group C hardware. It went on to be Lester’s Group A machine the following year (suitably de-specced of course).As for help from the King himself, we’re unaware of any factory help that came Lester’s way that year.