The Triple Eight driver has inked a personal sponsorship deal with Zach Bates, who will make his full-time Supercars debut with Matt Stone Racing.

The sponsorship comes via the Will Brown Transport organisation that is half owned by Brown and his father Shane and will include WBT signage on Bates’ helmet.

The deal is an extension of long-standing support for Bates from Brown, who helped facilitate his move to Eggleston Motorsport for the 2025 Super2 season.

Brown explained the WBT/Bates deal on the latest episode of the Lucky Dogs podcast he co-hosts with Brodie Kostecki.

“No, it’s not Lucky Dogs [sponsorship],” said Brown, a reference to the podcast backing a number of junior category drivers at the back end of last year.

“I thought I can’t just use all the Lucky Dogs money because it’s half Brodie’s as well.

“We have the [family-owned] car yard, but about a year and a half ago we bought trucks and it’s called KDK Car Carriers, we do a lot of transport in that. Me and my dad bought it [in] halves.

“But now I’ve switched it to WBT, so pretty much Will Brown Transport. That changes in a couple of weeks.

“So yeah, I’ve got that on [Bates’] visor, I sponsored him through that.

“As we all know I’ve supported Zach, they’re a great family and all that. So I thought we’ll do that and have a bit of fun with it.”

Bates is one of five rookies entering Supercars this year along with Jayden Ojeda, Jobe Stewart, Jackson Walls and Rylan Gray, the latter joining the series as Kostecki’s teammate at Dick Johnson Racing.

In the latest podcast episode Kostecki and Brown debated their pick for top rookie, Kostecki choosing his new teammate, while Brown highlighted both Gray and Bates as likely standouts.

“I think Rylan’s obviously going to be… well, he looked good in Super2, so I’d have to go him banking on all that sort of stuff,” said Brown.

“But I don’t think Zach got to show his potential [in Super2] last year.

“I also think at the end of the day, MSR have to keep everything up to a high standard for Zach to beat Rylan.

“I think Zach will have some standout drives. He qualified fifth at QR [last year] in one of our cars, which not anyone’s going to jump in and do.

“I’m going to back Zach with that, Zach and Rylan.”