Tim Slade’s #47 Erebus Motorsport Mercedes will sport a revised livery for this weekend’s Sucrogen Townsville 400.
Retaining the blue, orange and silver hues of major sponsor Heavy Haulage Australia, the car will now feature a Southern Cross theme for the remainder of the season.
The move follows HHA’s adoption of the USA flag-inspired ‘stars and stripes’ look for the recent Austin 400 in Texas.
“We had a great response from our fans in relation to our Texas livery and wanted to do something similar here,” said HHA owner John Kelly.
“We are a Queensland based business with depots Australia wide and we wanted to get back to our Aussie roots.”
The car also features a cartoon on its rear quarter panels that was designed by 11-year-old local Amy Butler.
Butler’s cartoon won a recent Townsville City Council design competition as part of a motoring-themed art exhibition.
Mayor Jenny Hill said the initiative is just one example of the V8 Supercars’ event’s importance to the local community.
“V8 Supercars bring so much to our city and it is great to see the Erebus Motorsport V8 team participating in a local initiative to engage our kids, we really appreciate their support,” she said.
Slade currently sits 23rd in the V8 Supercars Championship standings after 19 races and heads to Townsville off the back of a season-best sixth place result in the previous event at Hidden Valley.
Endurance co-driver Andrew Thompson will have his first drive of the HHA Mercedes in the Practice 0 session on Friday morning.
