Larry Clifton Perkins (born 18 March 1950 in Murrayville, Victoria) is a former racing driver and V8 Supercar team owner from Australia. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Although he only competed in a few Formula One races, Australian Larry Perkins would go on to become a touring car legend, winning the legendary Bathurst race six times.
Son of race driver Eddie Perkins, Larry developed a love for cars and enjoyed tinkering with the machinery on their farm in Cowangie as he grew up.
In 1970 he was recruited as a mechanic/driver for Harry Firth’s Holden Dealer Team, and although he never did much road racing for them, he raced in Rallycross alongside Peter Brock. He was also involved with the development of a Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1 V8 project although this was halted in mid-1972.
His talent was evident once he started racing, achieving success in single-seaters, and he won 1971’s TAA Formula Ford ‘Driver To Europe’ Series, followed by the Australian F2 Championship in 1972, both times in an Elfin 600.
Larry moved to race in Europe and, competing at Snetterton’s Formula Ford Festival, he finished third and racing in F3 in 1975 he finished fifth in the British F3 championship and took the European Championship title in a Team Cowangie Ralt RT1.
1974 saw him make his Formula One debut, joining Chris Amon’s F1 team at the German GP, but the car was uncompetitive and he didn’t qualify. Returning to F1 in 1976, he drove an Ensign for the HB Alarms team from the Spanish GP, where he finished thirteenth and then eighth in the following race in Belgium, though they were his best results. There were also three races for Alfa Romeo (in Canada, USA and Japan) although it would be a disappointment for him as he retired in two of them and only finished in Canada. Following this came further F1 drives in 1977, for Stanley BRM (Brazil and South Africa) and Surtees (Sweden and France), but he then returned to Australia.
Driving in Australian touring cars in 1977, his Bathurst debut saw him race a Holden LX Torana to third place (with Peter Janson). In 1979 he raced the Ansett Team Elifin MR8 to win the Rothmans International Series plus also won the Australian Rallycross Championship in a Volkswagen Beetle.
Teaming with Peter Brock in the early 1980s their Holden Commodore was dominant and won the Bathurst 1000 from 1982 to 1984. Larry would eventually win the race six times (1982, 1983, 1984, 1993, 1995, 1997), with co-drivers Peter Brock (1982–84), John Harvey (1983), Gregg Hansford (1993) and Russell Ingall (1995 and 1997).
During 1982 and 1983 he and brother Garry worked on ‘The Quiet Achiever’ solar car and he was one of the drivers of it during a transcontinental solar crossing of Australia. He set up Perkins Engineering in 1985 and, as well as setting new world records for fuel economy, as mentioned above, he was responsible for the first successful solar powered car.
There would be drives in the World Sportscar Championship in 1984, racing a Porsche 956B with Peter Brock for Team Australia/John Fitzpatrick Racing then in 1988 with a Silk Cut/Tom Walkinshaw Jaguar XJR-9LM at Le Mans, finishing fourth with Derek Daly and Kevin Cogan.
Over the next two decades he stayed in the Australian Touring Car Championship as an owner/driver and despite the continued success he was never Champion. During 1995’s Bathurst race, contact at the start put him to the back of the field but he raced back through the field to take victory in the final ten laps.
Larry retired from driving in 2003 to concentrate on running his team and engineering business. He was inducted into the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame in 2008 and in 2017 the Larry Perkins Trophy was named in his honour, which would be awarded to the driver who accumulates the most points across the four races at Melbourne 400. In addition to his talent as a driver he is an accomplished automotive engineer and engine-builder and built many race cars for his, and other racing teams. His nickname is LP, but he has been referred to as ‘Lightning Larry’, ‘Larrikin Larry’ and ‘Cowangie Kid’.
In the 2017 Bathurst race, the teams wore retro themed helmets and liveries to celebrate a Bathurst 1000 ‘Heroes and Legends’. Larry’s son Jack made a personal tribute to him by wearing a replica of the helmet the Holden legend wore to victory at Bathurst in 1997. Also, Larry was one of thirteen drivers chosen to be inducted into a Legends Lane at Mt Panorama.
