Mark Winterbottom will stand out racing a fan-inspired livery around Hidden Valley Raceway for Team 18 next weekend.
The majority of Winterbottom’s #18 DEWALT Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 livery has been retained, but the rear end is brought to life with an array of Indigenous artwork designed by Chern’ee Sutton.
Not only will this livery take centre stage at the Darwin Triple Crown, but it will also return at the following Townsville 500.
At the heart of the design is a sun on the rear quarter panel with a community symbol in the centre.
Sutton said her work is Supercars inspired having previously attended the Townsville 500.
She has used the sun symbol to represent car wheels and the sun rays to signify the race tracks, while the white lines represent the regions the category travels to.
Kangaroo and emu footprints have also been used to showcase the drivers pushing forwards, while the fans are represented by the boomerang.
Mark Winterbottom’s Indigenous Round livery evolves across the length of the Camaro.
“The DEWALT Racing Supercar looks absolutely amazing in its indigenous round colour scheme,” Sutton said.
“Team 18 has done an amazing job to bring my artwork to life and I can’t wait to see it racing on track in Darwin.
“I feel incredibly proud to be involved again. I never thought I’d ever see my artwork on a race car, and now I get to do it two years in a row, so that’s an incredibly special feeling for me and the indigenous round is something that I’m really honoured to be a part of again.
“My inspiration for this year’s design was representing the passion of Supercars fans attending the indigenous round, as well as the bright future of Team 18, Frosty and DEWALT.
“I did implement a few of my experiences from last year and seeing the race in person in Townsville.
“It was really fun doing this year’s design too because it was a change in colour scheme with the red, the yellow, and the black, which are also the colours of the Aboriginal flag.”
Winterbottom is extremely impressed with his new-look car for the Indigenous Round and hopes he can follow where the footsteps on his panels intend to go.
The livery Mark Winterbottom carried at last year’s Indigenous Round.
“The car looks fantastic. We’re very lucky that Chern’ee takes the time and puts the effort into doing what she does, and it’s an absolute piece of art, but also the story behind it is amazing,” he said.
“I’m honoured to represent it and she’s very proud of her history and heritage, so to put it on the car means a lot to her, and that means a lot to me to represent.
“There’s a lot of positivity with my story and one of them is about leading the footsteps to victory, so that’ll be the goal for us at Hidden Valley.”
Winterbottom heads to Darwin 15th in the championship, but showed gradual improvement throughout the Tasmania SuperSprint finishing the weekend in eighth.
Hidden Valley was a place where “Frosty” showed some speed, taking a hat-trick of top 10 finishes, while he claimed two NT victories in 2013 and 2014.
The 2023 Darwin Triple Crown will be staged on June 16-18.
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