The Commodore Cup was an Australian motor racing series. A one-make series originally devised by Victorian racers Maurie Platt and David Gittus, it was named for the car all competitors were required to use in competition, the Holden Commodore.
The category has always been a national series, but also mostly an amateur series. Despite this, the category has produced a V8 Supercar race winner in Lee Holdsworth. The category was one of the core categories of the Shannons Nationals Motor Racing Championships. The most successful driver in the series has been Geoff Emery, who has won the Commodore Cup series five times.
Eligibility was limited to specific Commodore models. Originally, only the first three series were allowed: VB, VC and VH. Motive power was limited to the 4.2-litre version of the Holden V8 engine.http://www.camsmanual.com.au/sportregs/2010_Sports_Sedan_SportRegs.pdf The regulations were designed to provide a limited level of performance modification, while not making the category overly expensive to run. The first season was held in 1994. Since its beginning, the category has always been moderately well supported with grid sizes in the 15–25 bracket.
The first major change to series regulations came in 2004 when VR and VS model Commodores were made eligible. The mechanical package was not changed substantially. The later model cars proved to be faster than the older ones, leading to a drop off in numbers of the older model Commodores.
In November 2012, it was announced that the series would fold due to consistently small entry numbers during the season. The cars themselves are still eligible for Improved Production classes.
A Northern Territory state level series based at Hidden Valley Raceway continues to this day.
Series champions
Year Champion 1994 David Gittus 1995 Gary Baxter 1996 Gary Baxter 1997 Dean Croswell 1998 Maurie Platt 1999 Tim Shaw 2000 Christian D'Agostin 2001 Christian D'Agostin 2002 Geoff Emery 2003 Geoff Emery 2004 Geoff Emery 2005 Geoff Emery 2006 Marcus Zukanovic 2007 Geoff Emery 2008 Michael Tancredi 2009 Brett Holdsworth 2010 Adam Beechey 2011 Adam Beechey 2012 Adam Beechey
References
External links www.commodorecup.com.au at web.archive.org