HDT sold to Bathurst winner ahead of major announcement

The legendary Holden Dealer Team (HDT) has been bought by two-times Bathurst 12 Hour winner and sports car racing champion Kenny Habul, only days ahead of a major reboot that's set to be announced after this year’s Bathurst 1000 race.

According to motorsport website V8 Sleuth, Mr Habul purchased the iconic brand name from long-time owner, former mining magnate and Peter Brock fan Peter Champion, for an undisclosed sum.

“I felt it was time for me to move on and sell it to someone that is just as passionate as myself, and that person is Kenny Habul,” Mr Champion said on social media.

Mr Champion, who bought HDT in 2007 following Mr Brock’s death the previous year, said the move – and the sale of the HDT Commodore road cars he’s been collecting for decades – was “one of the toughest decisions I’ve made in a long time”.

“Kenny is the right person to take on the challenge of keeping this famous brand with these famous cars alive.”

A recent announcement suggested a new beginning for the HDT brand, the precursor to Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) that was formed after Mr Brock and Holden parted ways in controversy in 1987.

HSV made its last vehicle in 2020 after producing its final Australian-made model – a red GTSR W1 – in December 2017, following the axing of Holden and the production of its final locally made vehicle in October that year.

In a press release issued last week, HDT said it will confirm “future plans for the legendary brand and its return to the heartland of Australian motorsport” the day after this year’s Bathurst 1000, which takes place on Sunday, October 11.

The statement said the brand’s new direction was “ambitious” and will include a “renewed presence at Bathurst”, where the brand has “unfinished business”.

It’s otherwise unclear what Mr Habul plans to do with the HDT brand, which started in 1969 as the racing division of Holden, winning Bathurst in its debut year.

The same year, Peter Brock debuted with the team and finished third with co-driver Des West in a Holden Monaro HT GTS.

Mr Brock won his first of nine Bathurst victories when he drove an HDT Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1 to victory in 1972.

His unprecedented success at the famous circuit during a glittering motorsport career saw him develop HDT Special Vehicles road cars, which are now highly sought-after and hugely collectable.

This kicked off with the HDT Commodore sedan in 1980, based on the luxury VC Commodore SL/E model grade fitted with the top-spec 5.0-litre V8 petrol engine.

The VC was the first of what became known as ‘Brock Commodores’, although HDT also produced other road-going models based on vehicles including the larger Statesman, the Gemini small car, and even the two-door V8-powered Opel Monza which was sold as a ‘Commodore coupe’.

The HDT arrangement ended in a bitter feud between Mr Brock and Holden in 1987, when the automaker refused to allow HDT to equip its cars with the ‘Energy Polarizer’, a device Mr Brock was doggedly determined to include as he said it significantly improved vehicle dynamics.

Having taken over its ownership in 1979, Brock sold HDT in 1988 when he switched from racing Holdens to BMW M3s, with HDT Special Vehicles purchased by the Coloraffi family that year.

Several models, such as the VN HDT Aero Commodore, continued to be produced, but not with the scale, prominence and collectability of the brand when it was under Mr Brock’s ownership.

A series of retro-styled models, based on the original 1980 VC and models such as the 1982-1984 VH SS Group 3, were made under Mr Champion's watch.

New owner Mr Habul owns several cars raced by Mr Brock, including the #10 VL SS Group A Commodore in which he won Bathurst in 1987 with co-drivers Peter McLeod and David Parsons.

He also owns the last car with which Mr Brock officially entered The Great Race – a 2004 VY Commodore – although the nine-times Bathurst 1000 winner didn’t complete a lap after teammate Jason Plato started the race and was involved in a crash on lap 26.

Mr Habul is an accomplished racer and businessman, having won the Bathurst 12 Hour sports car classic in 2022 and 2023, in Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos, and claimed the 2022 Intercontinental GT Challenge Pro-Am championship.

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