Batman Responsible for GRM Antics
Garry Rogers is known for his flamboyant style and love of having a bit of fun in pit lane. His team is renowned for Hawaiian shirt Friday at the ARMOR ALL Gold Coast 600, and his hot pink shoes at the weekend’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 haven’t gone unnoticed.
Now it seems not even his cars are safe with cartoon pictures of his staff being featured on the rear wings at each event.
Rogers told v8supercars.com.au Batman was responsible for starting this new team ritual.
“What happened is at the start of the year when we put the rear wing on I said to the guys this thing looks like the Batmobile, and they all laughed so I decided to put a picture of Batman on there," he said.
“This is the first year we have had these rear wings so we started this at Clipsal. Then I thought Batman is probably patented by Warner Bros or someone and we didn’t want to have any grief so we thought what should we do?
“Obviously we wanted to sell that space to sponsors and we still do but in the meantime we thought we would do this."
So where do these cartoons come from?
“All my people have nicknames and the cartoons are based on those. It’s an opportune time to give those people recognition for what they do, so each meeting we put a different picture of each person.
“We’ve had Squiddy (tyre technician Mitch Feeney) and Cowboy (team manager Dean Cowling) and, hey, we like a bit of fun."
This year Rogers is celebrating 50 years in motorsport so the team thought it only fitting the racing legend feature on the car at The Great Race.
“Brushes (Neville Bolton) our signwriter came up with the concept of Garry the Guru, he’s been doing our work for 30 years and he loves to have a bit of fun.”
Although Rogers felt there were other staff who should feature on his cars before him.
“I don’t want to be on there, but I’m glad they’ve done it. There are other people at work that are every bit important as I am.
“I didn’t know that I was going on there and we are running out of meetings because we have more staff than meetings, so we’ve started putting them on the bottom of the guards too.”
If you’re heading to an event this year or watching the V8 Supercars coverage on television or online, keep your eye out for these fun additions to the GRM cars.
The #33 Commodore driven by Scott McLaughlin/Jack Perkins finished eighth at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, and #34 driven by Alex Premat/Greg Ritter in 23rd after an issue with the fuel seal.
Click here for full results.
The next event on the V8 Supercars calendar – where the inaugural PIRTEK Enduro Cup will be awarded – is the ARMOR ALL Gold Coast 600. Tickets are still available.
