Holden Dealer Team

The Holden Dealer Team (also known as HDT) was an Australian racing team, founded by General Motors businessman Mark Reuss in an effort to market the Holden marque globally as well as in Australia. The team participated in the 2002 Alternate CART season with full-time drivers Craig Lowndes and Paul Tracy.

Creation
After already successfully fielding several vehicles in the Australian V8 Supercars series, Holden as a manufacturer were looking to expand globally with motorsport. When it was announced that Holden had been selected as one of the engine suppliers for the 2002 Alternate CART season, Holden jumped at the chance to field its own works team. Initially planning to launch as another branch of the Holden Racing Team, they ran into legal issues with the name and instead revived the team name made famous by Peter Brock, the Holden Dealer Team.

The HDT was designed with specific aims in mind, and one of these was to get more Australian drivers into open-wheel cars. Craig Lowndes had previously been testing with some open-wheel teams following many years of success in the Australian V8 Supercars series, and was approached to drive very early. Jumping at the chance to race for the team his hero and mentor Peter Brock raced for, Lowndes quickly signed up, relishing the chance to face off against fellow ex-V8 driver Jason Bright.

HDT however also saw the need for an experienced North American driver to join their ranks. After being snubbed by many other teams Paul Tracy approached HDT, hoping to provide many years of success and enjoying the challenge of being part of a new team from the ground up, partnering the younger Lowndes.





2002 Alternate CART Season
The Holden Dealer Team were the only team running the Van Diemen CC02 chassis, and they were hoping this will provide a distinct advantage at some tracks. HDT were particularly ambitious for the result of the home race at the Honda Indy 300 held in Surfers Paradise, Australia - just down the road from the team's headquarters.

The team made a fairly consistent start to the season, Paul Tracy surprising many by mixing with the front-runners from time to time and posting an impressive 4th place at Watkins Glen. Lowndes posted 8th in Round Two of the championship but has had his fair share of accidents as he struggles to come to terms with the format. However he, like Tracy has also proved to be capable of top 10 results, and it seemed only a matter of time that one of the drivers got on the podium.

The drivers had mixed fortunes at Road America. Paul Tracy qualified extremely well, setting the 5th fastest time, but inversely Craig Lowndes' best time was an incredible 4.8 seconds slower down in 43rd, failing to qualify for the race. In the race Tracy went on to score HDT's first ever podium with 3rd place, and Lowndes was sat down and told that a repeat performance would see him sent back home. Both drivers produced a strong return at Nazareth with top 10 finishes, promoting Tracy to 4th place in the Driver's Championship.

Paul Tracy continued to produce a solid run of top 10 finishes at Atlanta and Wisconsin to maintain 4th place in the driver's championship. Craig Lowndes, on the other hand, struggled for consistency and was languishing down in 19th place in the championship. This changed at the first international race of the season, where Lowndes stunned by placing 4th with his best result to date. Tracy also had a strong showing to place 6th, his 5th top 10 result in a row.

Thruxton produced a mixed bag of results, with Paul Tracy producing a stunning lap on Saturday to secure HDT's first pole position, but the pace just fell away on Sunday, with both drivers finishing outside the points for only the second time that season, with a retirement for Lowndes and 18th place for Tracy. Tracy's run of no points continued at Croft and Germany, with retirements at both races (a shame, as Tracy put his car on pole at Lausitz and looked capable of winning the race) meaning he would slip to 7th place in the standings, over 50 points behind the lead and probably out of contention. Lowndes also crashed at Lausitz, but the week before drove well to finish 8th.

Both drivers managed to get in the points at France and Miami, but never at the same time with both drivers also recording a retirement. With only five championship rounds remaining it was looking like the championship positions of both drivers were not going to change dramatically. The trend of the drivers alternating between strong finishes and retirements or poor finishes continued at Pocono, with 5th for Lowndes and 26th for Tracy despite Paul's start from pole position. This pushed Tracy down to 11th place in the championship, with Lowndes only 23 points behind his teammate.

A breakthrough victory finally came in Japan, with Tracy driving brilliantly to take the team's first ever victory and promoted himself back to 7th place. The same cannot be said for Craig Lowndes, who drove poorly and finished several laps down. As a result, the Australian was put on notice for the last three races of the season, told that he would need to perform (especially at the next event in Australia) to retain his seat for 2003.

Unfortunately a retirement on the second-last lap at the Gold Goast for Lowndes meant that it was announced his contract was not to be renewed for 2003. Tracy on the other hand backed up his victory at Motegi with 6th place to give the team something to take from their first home race. Underwhelming finishes in the minor points at best ended the 2002 season, with Tracy in 8th place and the outgoing Lowndes in 15th.

The team were reportedly surprised to be as competitive as they were, and quickly announced they would be returning to contest the 2003 season, however it was later announced that the 2003 season would not be run, and thus the team folded shortly after.