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Darwin event to celebrate Indigenous Round

20 Mar 2021
Hidden Valley Raceway will feature an Indigenous Round theme
2 mins by James Pavey
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Supercars’ annual trip to Hidden Valley Raceway in 2021 will feature an Indigenous Round theme.

Following the lead of the likes of the NRL and the AFL, Supercars will dedicate a round to Indigenous culture.

The Merlin Darwin Triple Crown, which will be held across June 19-20, will play host to the celebration.

The idea behind the Indigenous Round stemmed from Northern Territory Major Events, with teams also encouraged to run Indigenous-themed liveries.

"We're working through a number of activations with the promoter, which I think is a really cool thing to do,” Supercars Chief Operating Officer Shane Howard explained.

"There's a lot of interest and support from our teams. Some teams have done it before, but we want to have a more unified approach.

"We think we can do a good job of it across all levels of the sport. It's been a fantastic success for AFL and other footy codes.

"[NT Events boss] Tim [Watsford] raised it with us and asked if we'd consider supporting that, and we embraced it.”

Hidden Valley hosted back-to-back events last season amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with Darwin proving its worth on the Supercars calendar.

With Darwin a key centre for Indigenous culture, Howard explained that the celebration would be a significant way introduce Indigenous people to the sport.

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It comes amid heavyweight team bosses throwing their support behind the Racing Together initiative.

"The Territory did a No. 1 job during COVID. There was a lot going on at that time and they strongly supported us,” Howard said.

"The [2020] event was delayed by a week, we did the back-to-back events, and they gave us strong support with our teams being located there over a longer period of time.

"It's a really solid relationship and I think they're being innovative with their programme and supports. And we want to support that with the Indigenous Round.

"We'd like to introduce Indigenous people to the event, to our sport, to the teams and work with the community.

"We want to bring awareness of the indigenous people and help with sport.

"The teams are already embracing that. We're getting good feedback.”

The Repco Supercars Championship field has returned to Victoria this weekend at the Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint. Tickets are on sale now.

The event will be broadcast live on Foxtel and will be streamed on Kayo. Check out the full weekend schedule here.

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