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Car #18 will carry the artwork of Kalkadoon artist Chern’ee Sutton for a third year in a row, with the look commemorating the hundredth anniversary of major sponsor DeWalt.
Known as ‘100 Years of Striking Performance’, the spears symbolise the brand’s quality and striking performance, while the community symbol around it represents DeWalt’s people.
The fire which surrounds this community symbol represents the burning passion of DeWalt and Team 18, and this year’s NAIDOC theme of ‘Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud & Proud.’
The white and yellow community symbol represents Team 18, and the travelling lines which lead from this community symbol and continue throughout the design represents the communities and regions the team travels to, large and small all-around Australia to compete.
The kangaroo and emu footprints represent Team 18 and DeWalt always moving forwards, never backwards and the human footprints represents the teams journey to race and win.
Team 18 did win last year at Hidden Valley, for the first time in Supercars.
Winterbottom said, “Indigenous round is one of my favourite rounds. We get to unveil our great livery with DeWalt celebrating a hundred years and NAIDOC week’s theme of ‘Keep the Fire Burning’. The Dewalt Camaro looks pretty fast and pretty flash.
“My favourite part of the car is the shield, which resembles a hundred years of DeWalt strength, reliability and durability which are all the things I need as a driver to get this race car up the front.
“Last year was great to win. Any round is great to win, but when you can run a car that’s got history and meaning and all the work that Chern’ee puts in, to get that car across the line first does mean a little bit more, and she’s been great with what she’s done for us the last few years and it’s very special to have her do our artwork and my job is to repay the faith and put that car up the front.
“Our sport always evolves. Darwin has been very good for Team 18, but every year we go there, we don’t do the same thing. We’ve gone there again this year with a completely different car set-up and if you don’t, if you sit on your hands in this sport, you get overtaken.
“We go there again full of confidence, not because we won last year but because of what we’ve learned in that 12 months between last year and now.
“You think if you do the same, you get the same result, but everyone lifts that bar and if you don’t go with it, you get left behind.
“We think we’re good enough to get a result there, but by no means are we getting last year’s set up in the car, we’ve evolved from where we are. So we’ll see how we go.”
Sutton added, “I am incredibly honoured to have my artwork featured on Team 18’s Supercar for the third consecutive year, for the Darwin Indigenous Round.
“This collaboration is a meaningful way to celebrate and share Indigenous culture through a dynamic and visible platform.
“Each piece I create is a reflection of my culture and stories, seeing it speed around the track is both thrilling and humbling, with the design I created this year also incorporating the 2024 National NAIDOC Theme ‘Keep the fire Burning: Blak, Loud and Proud’ through the use of the flames on Frosty’s supercar. The flames represent the burning passion and desire of Team 18 and DeWalt to race and to win.
“Last year was particularly amazing because Mark Winterbottom won the race in his car which proudly featured my design, it was such an amazing win and a very proud moment for not only Team 18 but for me as well and I hope that they can do it again this year.”
Practice at Hidden Valley starts this Friday.
PHOTOS: Team 18 #18 Indigenous livery
