Larry Perkins
Larry Perkins was born in Murrayville, Victoria on the
18th of March, 1950. He is the son of Redex Australia
Trial driver Eddie Perkins. His first race was in Formula
Vee in 1970 at Mallala from where he eventually made
it to Formula One.
Unfortunately his time in the top
grade wasn't with a competitive team and he found his
way back to Australia and touring car driving. In 1982
he joined the Marlboro Holden Dealer Team and set about
making them damn near invincible. An engineer by trade
Perkins has always brought to his teams more than just
driving ability.
In 1985 he attempted the Wynn's Safari
in a 1964 VW Beetle against the factory backed 4WD's
and was lying second until the VW finally fell apart
much to relief of his more fancied competitors.
He again
went against conventional thinking by putting a 5 year
old VL Commodore on the front row of the 1992 grid with
the brand new VP Commodore several spots further back!
He became a hero finally in 1993 when he beat the 'villanous'
Winfield boys (Skaife & Richards) and backed this
up with a heroic last to first place victory in the 1995
race. In 1996 he went back to the future again by racing
his VP Commodore instead of the newer VR.