Rogers passed away this week, aged 80, triggering a flood of tributes from industry members – including the many drivers who were given their start by Garry Rogers Motorsport.
Tributes will continue throughout the weekend with a minute’s silence scheduled for Saturday and cars set to carry GRM stickers.
The biggest of all are on the two Erebus Motorsport Camaros, which are sporting the GRM logo across their windscreens.
Erebus CEO Barry Ryan said Rogers had been supportive through last year’s “problems”, as well as when team owner Betty Klimenko entered Supercars in 2013.
‘A titan of the industry’: Tributes flow following death of Garry Rogers
“Through the whole Mercedes thing, he was one of the team owners that really supported her as a female coming into the sport,” explained Ryan.
“They got on like a house on fire, had a lot of banter and would yell at each other and carry on.
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“Really, at the start of last year, when we had all our problems, Garry was the one that started texting me and saying, ‘come around for a chat’.
“He was really supportive, he got what the situation was.
“He was just a 79-year-old bloke when I first stepped into his office last year and he’s been a mentor helping me get through a tough time in my career in motorsport.
“He helped Betty as well when Betty was down.”
GRM exited the Supercars Championship at the end of 2019 but remained a key part of Australian motorsport through Trans Am and TCR Australia.
The team on Thursday declared it will follow Rogers’ mantra to “press on and get on with things” following his passing.
GRM has in recent years been run by Garry’s son Barry, who has inherited the legend’s sense of humour.
“A funny text I got this morning from Barry was actually from Garry’s mobile, he was impersonating Garry,” added Ryan.
“I’d love to read it to you, but I’d probably burst into tears. [Garry was] just a guy I loved spending time with, even though it was only the last couple of years I got to do it.”
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