[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by By RON HAMMERTON, Go Auto #660, Dec12, 2012.

Crennan to 'tell all'

ONE of Australia’s most prominent motor industry and motorsport executives is promising a tell-all biographical account of his 50 years in the game, including an insider’s view of some of the most explosive chapters in Holden history.

John Crennan, who joined GM Holden 50 years ago on Monday (December 10) and went on to found Holden Special Vehicles and Holden Racing Team with British entrepreneur and racing driver Tom Walkinshaw, says the manuscript of the book titled ‘50 Years of Holden, 1962-2013’, is 70 per cent written, having taken about 600 hours thus far.

The book’s subtitle – People, Personalities, Politics and Poor Performances – indicates the book will pull no punches, with Mr Crennan promising: “Like the way I work, I don’t sit on the fence.”

Mr Crennan promises to cover the Holden bust-up with racing icon Peter Brock, the subsequent founding of HSV, driver Craig Lowndes’ controversial departure from HRT, Tom Walkinshaw’s business collapse, and racing champion Mark Skaife’s skirmish with Mr Walkinshaw over the HRT ownership in the book due out next year.

But the book also promises to be uncomfortable reading at both Holden and HSV, with Mr Crennan saying he will outline why he believes Holden has crumbled from 50 per cent market share to about 10 per cent today – and tarnished its brand image along the way – and why “the ‘special’ seems to be lost from Holden Special Vehicles”.

Mr Crennan worked at Holden from 1962 to 1987, rising to become the national marketing manager before becoming the founding managing director of HSV in 1987 in the wake of

the Brock sacking, which meant the end of the Brock’s alliance with Holden on the Holden Dealer Team performance car division and racing arm.

Mr Crennan guided HSV and HRT for 20 years until he ‘retired’ in 2007, although he remained active as an auto industry consultant and, more publicly, chairman and chief executive of Kelly Racing in V8 Supercars.

Kelly Racing has just formally ended its relationship with Holden and officially taken up with new V8 Supercar entrant Nissan – 50 years after Mr Crennan started work at Holden’s Fishermans Bend headquarters in Melbourne.

Mr Crennan said he has been having trouble finding the time to work on the book, which he had planned to release on the anniversary this week.