Outspoken Supercars team backer Peter Adderton says the category’s top squads Triple Eight and DJR Team Penske are ‘boring and predictable’ in their marketing approach.
Adderton’s Boost Mobile brand made a splash at the end of last year when it inked a naming rights sponsorship deal with Garry Rogers Motorsport that included ousting star veteran Garth Tander in favour of axed Tickford driver Richie Stanaway.
He’s now leading a re-branding of the GRM squad under the Boost Mobile Racing banner, with plans to create a “gaming” look and feel to appeal to a younger audience.
Adderton says he’s also giving his drivers Stanaway and James Golding an open brief to be as controversial as they like, to combat what he says is a lack of surprises coming from the sport’s top teams and drivers.
“I find [DJR Team Penske and Triple Eight] extremely boring and very predictable,” he told Motorsport.com.
“There is nothing that will come out of that team that will surprise you or me this year. Nothing.
“We need to have surprises. We need to have people who can get out there and talk, or the sport will just fall away.
“The media doesn’t give personalities to drivers. Unless you’re at Triple Eight or Penske, or you’re Davey Reynolds who acts like a goofball, you don’t get the cameras coming to you.
“You look at Max Verstappen, he’s very opinionated and the cameras come to him. He creates entertainment.
“I think Richie will do that, I think James is the same. But it’s on Supercars to start building the profile of the drivers. It’s something that has to change. We have to bring the personalities out of the drivers.
“They have [permission to be outspoken]. Let me tell you, they have it. You know me.
“I’ve said ‘you can come in and call me and arsehole, I don’t care’. I’m not going to go ‘screw you’, I want them to speak their minds and be who they are.”
Golding and Stanaway came out of the Adelaide season opener sitting 18th and 20th in the points respectively.
Adderton, whose involvement in Australian motorsport stretches back to a co-ownership role in Australia’s Super Touring series in the 1990s, also issued a warning to on-the-market Chaz Mostert about simply signing for one of the two top teams.
“Chaz is a better for a brand like ours than he is for Penske,” said Adderton.
“I know he’s fast, but if I’m managing Chaz, and I want to see Chaz explode a bit into the personality he wants to be.
“He’s an extremely talented driver, he’ll have options. But Chaz has got to look at is that’s not just about going to the team that’s going to put him on the front of the grid, it’s the team that can build a foundation around him.
“You can’t take a guy that’s flamboyant like Chaz and then force-feed him into a corporate environment.
“I even laugh when I see Chaz in the BMW stuff. I know he’s trying his best, but it’s like taking a kid and putting him in a suit and making him an accountant.
“Every time I see Chaz there it looks like he’s doing a skit. This super cool racecar driver in a suit and tie, shaking hands with people.
“It’s going to be interesting to see what he does at the end of the year.”
Richie Stanaway, James Golding, Garry Rogers Motorsport unveil
Photo by: Garry Rogers Motorsport
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