Holden Dealer Racing Team, (or simply Holden Dealer Racing), was an Australian motor racing team, backed by General Motors-Holden

Holden

GM Holden Ltd is an automaker that operates in Australia, based in Port Melbourne, Victoria. The company was founded in 1856 as a saddlery manufacturer. In 1908 it moved into the automotive field, before becoming a subsidiary of the U.S.-based General Motors in 1931...

, which contested both the London–Sydney Marathon and the Bathurst 500 endurance race in 1968.

Although short-lived, this team was significant as the precursor to a permanent Holden Dealer Team

Holden Dealer Team

The Holden Dealer Team was Holden’s semi-official racing team from 1969 until 1987, primarily contesting Australian Touring Car events but also rallying, rallycross and sports sedans during the 1970s...

 set up the following year which then played a dominant role in Australian touring car

Touring car

A touring car, or tourer, is an open car seating five or more. Touring cars may have two or four doors. Often, the belt line is lowered in the front doors to give the car a more sportive character. They were often fitted with a folding roof and side curtains. Engines on early models were either in...

 racing over the next two decades.

Holden Dealer Racing was set up by David McKay

David McKay (journalist)

David McKay was an Australian journalist and prominent motoring identity.While most well known as a journalist, specifically as a motoring writer, McKay was also a prominent figure in motor racing as both a driver and a race team owner...

 of Scuderia Veloce

Scuderia Veloce

Scuderia Veloce was an Australian motor racing team founded by journalist racer David McKay that competed in many motor racing categories in the 1960s. The team is regarded as the first professional motor racing operation in Australia....

 and he put forward a strong three-car team of Holden Monaro GTS 327

Holden Monaro

The Holden Monaro is an automobile that was produced by GM Holden Ltd, an Australian subsidiary of General Motors, between 1968 and 1977 and between 2001 and 2005...

's firstly at the 1968 Hardie-Ferodo 500

1968 Hardie-Ferodo 500

The 1968 Hardie-Ferodo 500 was the ninth running of the Bathurst 500 production car race. It was held on 6 October 1968 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst...

 at Mount Panorama

Mount Panorama Circuit

Mount Panorama Circuit is a motor racing track located in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is the home of the Bathurst 12 Hour motor race, held each February, and the Bathurst 1000 motor race, held each October...

, Bathurst, New South Wales

Bathurst, New South Wales

-CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments...

 on Sunday 6 October. The driver pairings were New Zealander Jim Palmer (a Tasman Series

Tasman Series

The Tasman Series was a motor racing series held from 1964 to 1975, in Australia and New Zealand, and named after the Tasman Sea between the two countries...

 regular) with Phil West, international touring car and sports car driver Brian 'Yogi' Muir with 1964 Bathurst 500

1964 Armstrong 500

The 1964 Armstrong 500 was a production car race held on 4 October 1964 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia. The 500 mile race was open to Australian built production sedans of which 100 examples had been registered...

 winner George Reynolds

George Reynolds (racing driver)

George Reynolds is a retired Australian racing driver.The career of Reynolds, who was born on 8 May 1928, extended from the late 1950s into the late 1960s...

 and international sports car and Formula One

Formula One

Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...

 racer Paul Hawkins with Bill Brown. The Palmer/West Monaro finished second outright at Bathurst with the Muir/Reynolds car in fifth, while the Hawkins/Brown car was disqualified.

Following the race all three Monaro's were rebuilt to handle rally type conditions for the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon, starting in Crystal Palace, London

Crystal Palace, London

Crystal Palace is a residential area in south London, England named from the former local landmark, The Crystal Palace, which occupied the area from 1854 to 1936. The area is located approximately 8 miles south east of Charing Cross, and offers impressive views over the capital...

 on November 24, traveling through Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

, and into the Subcontinent

Subcontinent

A subcontinent is a large, relatively self-contained landmass forming a subdivision of a continent. By dictionary entries, the term subcontinent signifies "having a certain geographical or political independence" from the rest of the continent, or "a vast and more or less self-contained subdivision...

. From there the cars remaining in the rally departed Bombay

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

 on Thursday 5 December, arriving in Fremantle

Fremantle

Freemantle is a suburb of Southampton in England.Fremantle or Freemantle may also refer to:- Places :* Fremantle, the port city to the capital Perth, Western Australia...

, Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

 at 10am on Friday 13 December before they restarted at Gloucester Park Paceway

Gloucester Park

Gloucester Park is a harness racing course in Perth, Western Australia. In the suburb of East Perth, the oval course is adjacent to the WACA Ground...

 in Perth

Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

 at 6pm the following evening. The race then went across the Nullarbor into South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

 before heading into New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 and arriving in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 on 31 December. The cars were entered under the official team name of the The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph (Australia)

The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, by Nationwide News, part of News Corporation.The Tele, as it is also known, was founded in 1879. From 1936 to 1972, it was owned by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. That year it was sold to...

 under a sponsorship deal with the Sydney newspaper, with whom team leader McKay was the motoring editor. The main drivers for the team were David McKay in car #36 (DNF), Barry Ferguson (12th) in car #76, and three time Australian Grand Prix

Australian Grand Prix

The Australian Grand Prix is a motor race held annually and is held to be the pinnacle of motor racing in Australia. The Grand Prix is the oldest surviving motor racing competition held in Australia having been held 76 times since it was first run at Phillip Island in 1928. Since 1985 the race has...

 winner Doug Whiteford

Doug Whiteford

Doug Whiteford was an Australian racing driver.Whiteford was best known as a competitor in the Australian Grand Prix which he won three times in four years. He was fondly remember for his Talbot-Lago T26 Formula One car which he used to win his second and third Grands Prix. His third win was at the...

 (14th) in car #68. A fourth team car (#41), a Morris 1100

BMC ADO16

ADO16 is the codename for the development of what became the Morris 1100, a small family car built by the British Motor Corporation and, later, British Leyland...

 driven by Miss E. Westley finished in 50th place (only 56 of the 100 car field finished the marathon).

It was not until the 1969 Datsun Three Hour

1969 Datsun Three Hour

The 1969 Datsun Three Hour was an endurance race for production cars. The event was staged at the Sandown circuit in Victoria, Australia on 14 September 1969.- Results :* There were 42 starters in the event, 4 of which are not shown in the above table....

 at Sandown

Sandown Raceway

Sandown International Raceway is a motor racing circuit in Melbourne, Victoria, approximately south east of the city centre. It is considered a power circuit with its front straight being 899m long and back straight 910m long.-History:...

 that a permanent Holden Dealer Team, managed by Harry Firth

Harry Firth

Harry L. Firth is an Australian former racing driver and team manager. Firth was a leading race and rally driver during the 1950s and 1960s and continued as an influential team manager well into the 1970s...

, had its first outing. None of the six Holden Dealer Racing drivers from 1968 were involved in Firth's 1969 Holden Dealer Team campaign.