The name behind the race: Win Percy

Born in Dorset in 1943, Winston Walter Frederick Percy was introduced to motorsport in 1964 through his job as a mechanic, winning a local time trial event behind the wheel of his Ford Anglia 1200 against a host of more powerful machines. 

Percy would take multiple podiums at national races, including three wins at Cadwell Park's televised rallycross event in 1973, proving his inaugural victory was no fluke.

That shone a light on Percy's talent, and he became a professional driver the following year, driving Spike Anderson's Super Samuri Datsun 240Z in the British Modified Sports Car Championship. Naturally, he won.

Percy competed in 1975's British Touring Car Championship, rubbing shoulders with British touring car legend Tom Walkinshaw. Walkinshaw was impressed with what he saw, signing Percy to race his Wankel-engined Mazda RX-7 for the 1980 season. 

Walkinshaw's faith was rewarded as Percy won the championship twice in consecutive seasons and then again in 1982, having left TWR for Toyota. 

No one-trick pony, Percy would team up with Walkinshaw for an assault on the 1984 European and World Touring Car Championships behind the wheel of a powerful Group A V12 Jaguar XJS – one of three entered by the team – winning the Championship and the blue-ribboned Spa 24 Hours in the process. 

Success would keep coming the following year as the team switched to the V8 Rover SD1 Vitesse, carrying Percy to third place in the Championship, winning seven of the 500km races as he went. 

He took his maiden outing at the Bathurst 1000 in 1985, finishing third in the driver's seat of his trusty XJS. His next victory wouldn't come until he competed in the 1989 Spa 24 Hours race in an Eggenberger Motorsport Ford Sierra RS500, winning the race for a third time.

By 1990, Percy was an established Bathurst race, guiding his Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV to victory and finishing second the following year. 

Tragedy struck in 2003 when, after suffering a serious accident in his garden, botched hospital treatment left him paralysed from the waist down and unable to race.

But the legend was already set. The three-time British Touring Car Champion was also the most successful non-Antipodean (Austrasia) driver to compete at the Bathurst 1000 at the time of his retirement, leading Autosport Magazine to crown him "The World's Number One Touring Car Driver."

No surprises then, that the trophy that bears his name is a 45-minute race for touring cars with a capacity of less than 2.8 litres – a line-up that includes Percy's very own championship-winning Mazda RX-7. 

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Images courtesy of Getty Images.