Boost-backed GRM to feel esports influence

Boost Mobile boss Peter Adderton says his telco will bring an "esports, gaming" flavour to its sponsorship of Garry Rogers Motorsport.

The Holden squad announced Boost as its new naming-rights sponsor last month, following Wilson Security's end-of-2018 departure.

It will field incumbent James Golding and new recruit Richie Stanaway, the pair having been among 2018's five Supercars rookies.

Part of Boost's move from Walkinshaw Andretti United is to have full naming rights and branding, which Adderton suggests will be a departure from the norm.

The Boost Mobile Racing Commodores will be revealed on Wednesday evening at the Superloop Adelaide 500, after carrying a MotoGP-inspired interim livery, below, at the Phillip Island test.

"We love design and you'll see the design," he told Supercars.com.

"The racesuits and the merchandise and everything else we're doing – we're not doing the traditional stuff.

"We're really trying to bring a esports, gaming, youth-market [feel] into the team."

Adderton's firm has a sharp focus on the youth market, and backed the Supercars e-Series in 2018.

Having known Rogers since the pair's involvement in Super Touring racing in the 1990s, he noted the veteran team owner's willingness to embrace new ideas.

"What I like about Garry is Garry knows what he's good at," Adderton said.

"And he knows when it comes to the marketing and the branding and the front end of the team, that's an area best left to companies like Boost.

"But he knows how to run a team and he knows how to get the discipline and the best out of the drivers."

While Golding's relationship with GRM also includes an apprenticeship at the workshop and his time in the Dunlop Super2 Series, Stanaway is a newcomer.

The pair both finished out of the top 20 in their rookie campaigns, Stanaway's particularly turbulent within Tickford Racing.

Golding and Stanaway finished the Phillip Island test 12th and 21st, the latter noting the shift from a Tickford Falcon was more significant than he expected.

"They're both young, there's no senior driver," Adderton noted.

"The difference, probably for Richie this year will be, having a two-car team.

"I think when you're a four-car team, you've got four cars running individually, under one tent.

"That's a very hard dynamic to be able to manage and I think Richie will probably find the experience a lot more enjoyable because the feedback between the engineers.

"It is a two-car team, they are working together as a team, as opposed to four individual brands.

"Richie will probably feel good if he helps James get through and James will feel good if he helps Richie get through, because ultimately that's how a team works.

"I think the team environment is something Richie's never really had, and I think Garry's going to provide that for him."