Come fly with me

Six-time Bathurst winner and TeamVortex driver Craig Lowndes believes the Supercars Travel initiative is a great opportunity for fans of the sport.

Part of the Virgin Australia naming rights deal – which will see the sport know as the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship from July 1 – includes the travel aspect, that means fans will be able to book bundled packages with flights, accommodation and tickets packaged together.

While full details of the Supercars Travel initiative are still to come, a package that rolls in all the aspects of attending a race meeting is a positive for fans, according to Lowndes.

“It’s going to be not only good for us, but good for the fans to have a bit more of a structure going forward of pricing – not only flights, accommodation and ticketing for tracks – for people to know what their outlay is to start with,” Lowndes told v8supercars.com.

Supercars CEO James Warburton and Virgin Australia CEO James Borghetti announced the five-year naming rights sponsorship at the Virgin Australia Hangar at Brisbane Airport with a number of drivers and key players in attendance today.

“I think it’s fantastic – over the two decades I’ve been involved it’s very rare that we have a major sponsor like a Virgin come on-board,” Lowndes said.

“To now know that the next five years we’re going to be known as Virgin Australia Supercars, that’s a great thing.

“For us it just embraces how good our sport is at the moment. To have Virgin come on, it’s going to be a win-win.”

Lowndes’ teammate Jamie Whincup was part of this morning’s announcement, as a Virgin Australia ambassador.

The six-time champ made an entrance in his Red Bull V8 Supercar, pulling up between a B737 Virgin Australia plane and the V8 Supercars Transporter, joining other V8 Supercars on display.