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After
much conjecture, the 57-year-old legend of the sport has announced
that he will return from a five-year retirement to do battle again
at Mount Panorama, where he notched up nine victories between 1972
–1987 in a variety of Toranas and Commodores.
Brock
will partner current Team Brock driver Craig Baird at this year’s
Bob Jane T-Mart sponsored event in a V8 Holden Commodore painted
in a special black and gold livery and sporting the famous 05 race
number.
"This
Bathurst race is very much a one-off arrangement for me," Brock
stressed. "But the commercial realities of such an exercise will
help consolidate the team’s future into 2003 and beyond. That’s
what’s important."
Team
Brock has been boosted by new sponsors Motorola Australia, ArmorAll
and Auto Art joining the more established names of Holden, Mobil
and Bridgestone.
Brock
will find himself lining up against the likes of Mark Skaife, Craig
Lowndes, Greg Murphy and Marcos Ambrose, all twenty or thirty years
his junior.
“This
will be a full-on competitive outing and we’re looking for a top
ten finish. If we can stay in touch with the frontrunners anything
can happen – and who knows, maybe victory number ten is not out
of the question," he said.
"We
certainly won’t be there just to make up the numbers. Motor racing
is pretty unpredictable, but as a racing car driver you've always
got a fairly optimistic point of view. But I'm not going there with
any expectation at all.”
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"I
must admit that the possibility of a return to Mount Panorama has
been on my mind for some months now as a result of a competitive
effort in the Targa Tasmania Monaro last April. I’ve been keeping
myself pretty fit at the local gym in case everything fell into
place," Brock added.
Brock,
who led the pack early in his retirement race in 1997, admitted
that commercial considerations were a major factor.
"It's
just commercial situations, really, because you know what happens
out there in the big, wide world with sponsorship and deals,” he
explained.
"You
can often find some great difficulties in actually getting it all
to come together."
"One
of the facts of life is that I knew that if I was going to drive
this car at Bathurst, that would get a lot of people pretty interested
in supporting what we're doing," Brock said.
"That
would have a considerable flow-on effect to the year 2003 and beyond
so, from a business perspective, that was a pragmatic decision.”
Major
sponsor Motorola was elated with the Team Brock/Bathurst involvement.
"Peter
is an icon in this country, and it’s great for Motorola to be associated
with a comeback that is sure to please his legion of supporters
around Australia," said Alan Nicklos, Managing Director of Motorola
Mobile Phone Division.
"It’s
our first foray into V8 Supercar sponsorship, and we’re looking
forward to an ongoing mutually rewarding relationship with Team
Brock."
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