Darwin round to spark nationwide search for Indigenous Supercars driver

This weekend’s Indigenous round of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship is about recognising First Nations people but the secondary goal of an Indigenous driver in Supercars.

There will be 26 drivers at the Hidden Valley event this weekend, one more than usual with the addition of the Supercheap Auto wildcard entry of Zane Goddard, yet with no Aboriginal driver in the nation’s premier category.

“Ultimately as an Aboriginal person, you do look at the Supercars and say, well, there’s no Aboriginal drivers,” Kenny Vowles, Director of Culture for Darwin Triple Crown, told Speedcafe.

“I think the long term outcome would be to have, you know, an Aboriginal First Nations person driving in the Supercars – that’d be fantastic.”

The Darwin round became the official Indigenous event in 2022 as an initiative between Supercars and the Northern Territory Major Events Company.

“Through Supercars’ Indigenous Round and valuable motorsport programs such as Racing Together, the aim is to familiarise Indigenous individuals with the event, our sport, and the teams, while actively engaging with the local community,” said Supercars CEO, Shane Howard.

This year’s activities expand last year’s effort, with a full 26-car field sporting Indigenous liveries, and further actions such a Grove Racing’s work with MITS (Melbourne Indigenous Transition School) continuing, with Grove donating the first $15,000 to its fundraising campaign.

Goddard’s wildcard entry sports an Indigenous livery that depicts members of Racing Together, but also goes beyond with students having taken roles at both Triple Eight and Supercheap Auto as part of the programme, including the supply of tools at a new workshop in Townsville.

Many of Australia’s most prominent sporting codes, including the National Rugby League (NRL), Australian Football League (AFL) and Rugby Union, have an annual Indigenous round on their respective calendars, and – for various reasons – have seen greater success in Indigenous player participation for decades.

The Supercars Indigenous round concept came post-COVID as a way to energise the event and was inspired, in part, by Supercars’ broadcaster Fox Sports’ Indigenous Sport Month, which it first established in June 2021.

“It was important that it wasn’t just a tick-the-box exercise and that’s why there’s programs attached to this now,” Vowles told Speedcafe.

“We’ve got loads of the local junior motorsports crew; it’s really popular up here as it is around the country. There’s always all the different sporting groups and sporting academies in the high schools; we’re always looking for people, and I know the Supercars people and motorsports people always trying to highlight people.”

“You know, what comes behind that is embracing the program and growing it. So we have a real nationwide search for an Aboriginal driver.

“I think that that’ll be the greatest outcome racing – and I’m on country – a Larrakia lady or man and winning the Darwin Triple Crown race would be the greatest outcome.”