Winterbottom drove his final race for the Charlie Schwerkolt-owned Supercars squad last month as a six-year relationship came to an end.
Unable to secure a full-time seat elsewhere, the 43-year-old will rejoin Tickford Racing next year as a co-driver for Cam Waters and mentor to its Super2 talent.
Winterbottom has made few racing appearances outside Supercars across the last two decades, but notably made guest appearances in the Stock Car Brazil Series in 2014, ’15 and ’18.
Reflecting during a recent appearance on the Rusty’s Garage Podcast on his time in the category’s then-annual co-driver round, Winterbottom said he could have become a Brazil regular.
“I loved Brazil when I raced there. That was really cool,” he told host Greg Rust.
“It’s all done on WhatsApp, they don’t do contracts, it’s bizarre, and they pay you in cash.
“They actually asked me back in 2019 if I wanted to do the full championship.”
Despite it appearing a huge leap to give up a Supercars career after his 13-season stint with Tickford Racing, Winterbottom insists Brazil had its appeal.
He described the V8-powered machines as a “GT-cross-Supercar” and revelled in the opportunity to race against ex-Formula 1 drivers including Rubens Barrichello and Nelson Piquet Jr.
“The Brazil [offer] was quite appealing, to be honest,” Winterbottom continued.
“If it was a proper contract, I would have really looked at it because we could have lived in Miami, we could have lived in… we didn’t have to live in Brazil, we could have lived in Australia and flown.
“And the money was decent there but the opportunity and a new challenge, it was quite serious.
“But then everything is a handshake and when you’re getting paid cash and stuff, you’re at a point in your life where you didn’t have to do that.
“But it was quite serious. If it had have been a contract I would have looked at it for sure.”
Winterbottom says he has no regrets about his decision to join Team 18.
He scored the team’s first and only win to date at Hidden Valley in 2023 but finished no better than ninth in the standings across six seasons with the team.
Winterbottom had finished inside the championship’s top six in each of his first 12 years at Tickford, only slumping to 12th in his final campaign with the Ford team.
“I don’t regret anything,” he said. “You sign up for something and do the best you can. Sometimes it turns into a diamond and sometimes it doesn’t work out the way you want.
“But I don’t regret anything. I think I did a really good job there for six years, improved it, got sponsors on and team [people], we took it from the back to a good level.”
Discussion about this post