Jack Perkins says his first V8 Supercars race win justifies his decision to swap from racing in the championship full-time to becoming a co-driver with a leading team. An emotional Perkins watched on in the Holden Racing Team garage as lead driver James Courtney took an unexpected victory in Sunday’s 300km race at the Castrol Gold Coast 600 in the #22 Commodore VF.
It was the first time on a V8 Supercars podium for the 29-year old, who has raced in the championship full-time and part-time since 2006, when he debuted for his legendary father Larry’s team in the season of endurance.
“I signed with James right back in December and I joined the Holden Racing Team to get race wins,” Perkins said.
“I thought race wins might never happen… but I was pretty happy to get that surfboard!”
Perkins raced full-time for Perkins Engineering in 2007, but after being diagnosed with Type One diabetes had to step out of the drive in 2008. He rejoined the championship driving a Commodore for the newly combined Perkins-Kelly brothers team in 2009, but did not continue into 2010. Last year he rejoined the championship full-time driving a Ford Falcon FG run out of Prodrive Racing Australia for privateer entrant Charlie Schwerkolt. But he couldn’t come to grips with a difficult car and the deal ended after a single season.
It was a shattering blow for Perkins, who had spent years re-setting his driving career and making a concerted attempt to emerge from the shadow of his famous father, who won Bathurst six times, raced in Formula One and is regarded as one of Australia’s greatest drivers.
“I guess I worked for four years to get that gig I got last year and I put together a bit of a deal with Charlie to go racing, and it didn’t go to plan,” Perkins reflected. “But for various reasons I thought I could still do this driving caper.
“But I figured I didn’t want to be a field-filler and be a main game driver who finished 15th every week.
“If you look at the field, there’s six to eight cars that have a chance of genuinely winning, I figured it would be better to do three races with one of those guys than 15 or 16 races making up the numbers.
“I’m pretty committed to being an enduro driver from here forward. There’s not many gigs full time that would be of significant interest to me that would present a better opportunity than sitting here right now.”
Perkins revealed he had given up on his and Courtney’s chances of victory after having to double-stack behind team-mates Garth Tander and Warren Luff. But a brilliant strategy decision to return almost immediately to the pits and splash a few litres of fuel into the car so it could run to the finish proved crucial, allowing Courtney to leap-frog through the field as rivals rushed in for late-race splash and goes.
Meanwhile, 197,872 fans attended this year’s Castrol Gold Coast 600 at Surfers Paradise. V8 Supercars CEO James Warburton said the attendance was a seven per cent increase on last year’s crowd of 184,732.
“This is biggest attendance we’ve had at the event on the Gold Coast since V8 Supercars started promoting it in 2012,” he said.
“I want to thank our loyal and passionate fans for the support of this sensational event. To have 197,872 fans attend this year’s Castrol Gold Coast 600 confirms its status as one of Queensland’s biggest sporting events.
“They’ve enjoyed great entertainment on and off the track including last night’s Cold Chisel concert. I want to thank Minister Kate Jones, Tourism Events Queensland, the Queensland Government and Castrol for their ongoing support of the event.”
Tourism and Major Events Minister Kate Jones said the Castrol Gold Coast 600 was a key part of Queensland’s major events portfolio which is focussed on driving more visitors to the state, providing a boost to the economy and showcasing Queensland’s destinations.
“This is a wonderful event for the Gold Coast and Queensland, showcasing this stunning destination to the world. It’s fantastic to see such a great crowd come along to see why the Gold Coast is ‘famous for fun’,” Ms Jones said.
“The three Queensland V8 Supercars events generate $75 million annually and 218,000 visitor nights and that’s great news for our tourism industry.
