There has been tension between Boost Mobile founder Adderton and Erebus CEO Ryan throughout this year, predominately driven by Adderton’s public criticism of Erebus over its handling of driver Brodie Kostecki.
That feud reached three flashpoints over the Gold Coast weekend, two that played out in public and one in particular that was kept out of the limelight – until now.
All three were intertwined, the first coming on the Thursday night when Erebus was the sole team to not leave its garage open during an evening party backed by Boost Mobile.
Erebus blamed its decision on concerns over safety, however couldn’t avoid a fine from Supercars given instructions to have all garages open were in the supplementary regulations.
Adderton made his thoughts on the matter quickly known, criticising Erebus on social media and suggesting the money that went into the fine could be better spent on charitable work.
That prompted a private response from Ryan’s wife which Adderton re-shared to his followers.
On Friday evening, a chance meeting between Adderton and Ryan in the lobby at the JW Marriott turned into a heated exchange that the led to somewhat of a clearing of the air.
“I was at the Marriott and I see Barry coming at me at 100 miles an hour,” explained Adderton on the KTM Summer Grill.
“I see Barry just literally coming at me, and I’m like, ‘okay, this is going to not be good’.
“He came up, and he started out fairly angry at me. I said, ‘look Barry, you know, you poke a bear, what do you expect? You’re going to get an attack’.
“He tried to explain himself, and then he kind of said to me, ‘could you pull the post down, Peter?’
“I said, ‘alright Barry, I’m a man on my word. I see your point there, that may have been over the top’.”
Fast forward to Sunday and Ryan and the entire Erebus team were sporting Boost Mobile hats after Brodie Kostecki scored pole position on the Surfers Paradise street circuit.
The regulations may have stated that they had to, however it was far from a guarantee, given Supercars has made exceptions for other teams and drivers due to sponsor conflicts this year.
However, it was that hotel lobby exchange that opened the door for a truce of sorts.
“We had a chat, and he said, ‘if we get on pole, I promise you, I’ll wear your hat. For you removing that [post], I’ll do it’,” said Adderton.
“I was like, ‘okay fine Barry, I’m not going to get into a massive fight with you over it’.
“So we kind of had an agreement, and Barry honoured that agreement. And I respect Barry for that.”
Adderton continued: “I’m sure they didn’t like it, and I’m sure if they could have not worn it, they wouldn’t have. But to Barry’s credit, we had an agreement [from] that night.
“I did think he was going to punch me, I’ll be honest with you, when he first came up to me [in the hotel]. I had all my friends around me [and I was] going, ‘where were you guys?’. And they’re like, ‘well, we were just going to see what was going to happen’.
“But he calmed down and in typical Barry style went from hot head to reasonable, and we had a conversation, and that’s basically what created that [hat] scenario.”
So how did it go down from Ryan’s perspective?
“There’s no hiding me and Peter have a love/hate relationship, but we actually we get on really well,” said Ryan.
“We can ring and talk to each other, and there’s no drama. But he throws rocks, and I don’t throw anything because I’m not on social media.”
According to Ryan, his gripe with Adderton’s post was that he had taken a private message and made it public.
“He’s the only one that saw [the response], but then he screenshotted it and mentioned my wife [publicly]. And don’t mention my wife. This is my professional game, not hers,” he said.
“I noticed him when I was walking in the Marriott and I went down to the bar and I said, ‘Pete, that’s just out of line. Don’t bring up my wife in anything like this. And you need to know some facts’.
“He started talking about the start of the year and how we wouldn’t let Brodie run a sticker on his helmet and all this stuff. And it was just… it was actually a good conversation to get things out in the open.
“I learned some things off him that were interesting that I didn’t know about the start of the year, and I gave him some facts of what actually happened.”
Helping break the ice was the random intervention from a Supercars fan.
“At the end of it, a fan wanted a photo, so me and Pete got in a photo with our arms around each other,” said Ryan.
“It was a bit weird, but we shook hands and we said, ‘well let’s catch up and have a beer one day and just talk through it all’.
“It was a bit confrontational, because I did walk up to him… I definitely wasn’t going to punch him in the face or anything, I just said, ‘mate that was out of line. You shouldn’t bring up my family. If you got a problem with me, do it to me’.
“I think he respected that I actually come up to him and didn’t do anything on social media. I said to him, ‘why don’t you just come and find me if you got a problem and talk to me?’
“But sometimes in America he can’t do that, so he’s quick to get on his phone and say things.”
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