Nearly three weeks on from his drought-breaking Bathurst 1000 victory, Lee Holdsworth is still coming to terms with being introduced as a winner of Australia’s most famous race.
With just one podium to show from his first 17 attempts, the 38-year-old could have been forgiven for wondering if his time had passed.
That was until he teamed up with Chaz Mostert earlier this month, the pair setting the pace all week and overcoming a mid-race tyre drama to claim the win.
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“I’m still pinching myself that it actually happened,” Holdsworth told Wide World of Sports from Queensland, where he’s enjoying a summer break.
“It shocks me every time someone says ‘Bathurst winner Lee Holdsworth’ because I’ve never heard it for my entire career. Chaz knows what it’s like, having won before, but I’m still pinching myself. It’s crazy to think my name will always stay on the Peter Brock Trophy.”
Holdsworth finished third at Mount Panorama with Michael Caruso back in 2009, the only other time he’s finished in the top five of the Great Race.
And he concedes that had he eventually hung up the helmet without winning Bathurst, his career wouldn’t have been complete.
“No, definitely not. Definitely not,” he said.
“That would have been an empty spot on the resume, for sure. Everyone sets out to win Bathurst, whenever they start racing. That’s the one you want to win, and sometimes I think it means more than the championship.
“I’m probably a bit biased now, maybe Glenn Seton is the person to ask, I know it hurts him that he never won Bathurst, it’s definitely a bucket list thing for the drivers.
“It’s our Indy500, our Monaco Grand Prix, our Le Mans, it’s a marquee event.”
Despite having the fastest car this year, Holdsworth admits that so much can go wrong and derail a Bathurst campaign. But he laughs when asked if this year’s win makes up for 17 years of heartbreak at the mountain.
“Yeah, it does! If I’d known this was coming I wouldn’t have stressed so much about the other races,” he said.
“Every time you go there you know everyone has a shot, you never know where you stand exactly, but I knew this year it was the year I had a genuine chance. Chaz was fast there at the start of the year and I’d just come out of full-time racing, so I knew it was the best chance I’d had.
“But even then you need so much to go your way, there’s so many things that can go wrong. The whole day, I was just waiting for something to go wrong, waiting for the disappointment, and it never came.”
The only real scare for Mostert and Holdsworth came about a third of the way through the race, when a left-rear tyre let go, forcing Mostert to limp back to the pits.
It meant an unscheduled stop and put the pair out of sync with the rest of the field, but Holdsworth says the situation wasn’t too concerning.
“I knew we had the speed to get back,” he explained.
“We lost the 14 second lead that we had, but by the time we pitted we were effectively still in second, and we were one stop up on everyone. We were still in a good position, but it was the worry that it was going to happen again.
“The concern was the cause of the blowout, and what could we do to make sure it didn’t happen again. Was it tyre pressures? Camber? Too much kerb? Too much wheelspin? So many questions.”
The Walkinshaw Andretti United pair were one of the strongest combinations at Bathurst, with Holdsworth having been a full-time driver until the end of the 2020 season.
He says the days are long gone when the second driver was simply seen as a safe pair of hands while the main driver has a break.
“You’ve really got to have two drivers now who are very similar speed, because it’s a sprint race, it’s not just about being there at the end anymore,” he said.
“The good thing with Chaz and I, I was able to stay in the car a bit longer than a lot of the co-drivers, which meant Chaz was fresher at the end of the race.
https://twitter.com/LeeHoldsworth/status/1467428127517249537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“He only did a double stint at the end, whereas I think probably many of the others were in the car for the last three stints. There’s so many advantages to it, and it opens up your strategy as well. I was able to be out there with the main drivers and hold them off.
“It changes everything, and it changes the driver market a lot. You’ve had guys like Will Davison, Garth Tander and myself, Craig Lowndes, there’s so many good co-drivers who could definitely still be there as a main driver.
“The days of being within a second of the main driver are long gone.”
https://twitter.com/LeeHoldsworth/status/1471597836340850688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Holdsworth described the WAU Commodore as the best race car he’d ever driven, noting that he and Mostert didn’t need to overdrive the car to achieve a good lap time. Having finally broken through for the win, he said there was actually little time to celebrate in the immediate aftermath.
“We were probably too caught up in all the media stuff to be honest,” he explained.
“For the two hours after the race there was that much media going on, I don’t think Chaz and I had a beer until about 10pm. We made up for it though!
“Of course you want to celebrate with the team, because they played as big a role as Chaz and I. Everyone has to do their job, if one person doesn’t do it the result is out the door.
“But there hasn’t been any time to relax and reflect on it, but now I’m on holidays I can kick back and relax and take it in over Christmas.”
Holdsworth’s full-time career in the Supercars championship came to a sudden end in 2020, but he’ll be back on the grid in 2022, having signed with Grove Racing to partner David Reynolds.
That means he won’t defend his title with Mostert next year, although he admits giving up a plum endurance co-driving role would have been harder had they not won this year.
“Absolutely, 100 per cent,” he said.
“I just feel in a way now that winning Bathurst has been ticked off the list. Of course, I’d love to do it again. But now that I’ve won there it’s off the bucket list.
“If we’d come second this year then it would have been very hard to turn down another co-drive with Chaz and WAU.
“One of the questions I had to ask myself was, was I happy being a co-driver for the next five years, or do I want to go back and finish as a full-time driver on my own terms? The full-time career came to an abrupt end in 2020, and it came as a massive shock.
“I just feel that it’s an opportunity and challenge I can’t let pass. I still feel like I’ve got more to offer, and I’d like to help Grove Racing develop as a team and leave them in a position where they’re closer to the pointy end of the field.
“Chaz and I would definitely have gone back as one of favourites next year, it was such a brilliant car, but WAU were good enough to release me.”
Holdsworth is realistic enough to know he’s not likely to be battling for the championship next season, but is hopeful the team can move forward as the season progresses.
“I think from the team’s point of view, Grove is aiming for top-10 in the championship,” he explained.
“Obviously as a driver, that’s not where you aim for, you aim for race wins, but you have to be realistic.
“The team is in a building and development phase, and it’s hard until I’ve driven the car to know where the team is at and what potential is there.
“I’ll certainly be trying for wins and podiums, but first and foremost we have to be in the top-10.”
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