Walkinshaw Andretti United will retain its Indigenous liveries for next week’s NTI Townsville 500.
Nick Percat’s #2 Mobil 1 NTI Racing and Chaz Mostert’s #25 Mobil 1 Optus Racing entries sported designs of Brian ‘Deadly’ DeVries when Supercars last raced, earlier this month at the Darwin Triple Crown.
While the Hidden Valley event is the newly designated official Indigenous Round, that of Townsville coincides with NAIDOC Week, which celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
“It’s fantastic to be able to continue to showcase our Indigenous liveries at the NTI Townsville 500, which importantly, also coincides with NAIDOC Week, a very important week in Australia,” said WAU team principal Bruce Stewart.
“KARI Foundation’s support has been wonderful, and we are very excited about working with them into the future.
“Following this round, we will run an auction with all proceeds going to KARI Foundation, so keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks.
“Our entire partnership team has been fantastic in their support of the livery and programme, so a big thank you to them – the importance has been recognised and supported by everyone.
“Both cars looked incredible on track in Darwin, so I can’t wait to see them around the streets of Townsville in what is no doubt one of the events of the year.”
The design across both of the WAU cars, called ‘Community Togetherness’, was originally created as part of the collaboration between Optus and the KARI Foundation.
DeVries, a proud Wiradjuri Gunya man with ties to the Yuin Nation (New South Wales South Coast), is passionate about sharing Aboriginal culture through traditional art, dance, and music.
According to the team, the work which features on their cars “captures the journeys of travel coming together, the meeting places, the ripples of communication and the knowledge that is shared and is always plentiful.”
WAU joins Dick Johnson Racing and Team 18 in carrying its Darwin liveries into the season’s North Queensland stop.
The NTI Townsville 500 is comprised of 250km races on the Saturday and Sunday, with Practice 1 kicking off on Friday week at 10:10 local time/AEST.
