Robinson's family connection to motorsport
- Repco Supercars Championship
- |
- 13/05/2021
Charli Robinson might be fresh to the Supercars broadcast team, but her family's love for motorsport runs deep.
Best known for her entertaining work on popular kids show Hi-5, Robinson joined the pit lane reporting team for the 2021 season.
The mother of two now forms part of the Supercars travelling circus, while juggling a young family with fiancé and racer Liam Talbot.
Speaking to the Parked Up Podcast this week, Robinson revealed her motorsport roots.
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“I was raised this way; my family used to go and sit on Hell Corner at Bathurst for as long as I could remember,” Robinson told hosts Tony D'Alberto and Grant Rowley.
“If not, we were at home in Newcastle and we would have big parties, it was the only day of the year that Dad was allowed to have a beer at 9am.
“We would hire a big screen and everyone in the town would come over with their Ford or Holden flags.
“It was just the way I was raised; it was our Christmas day, the Bathurst 1000 weekend.”
Robinson and fiancé Talbot
Cementing the mountain in her family’s history, Talbot proposed to Robinson on the dummy grid at Mount Panorama in 2019, before he competed in a Carrera Cup race.
Encouraged by her father to embrace racing, the 40-year-old contemplated a career in motorsport before pursuing children's television.
“Dad used to tell us to close our eyes and feel the engines in our soul,” she said.
“That is how you raise two very bogan daughters who love Supercars more than anything in the world.
“On my first Hi-5 album, it asks what would you be doing if you weren’t in Hi-5, and it honestly says a V8 Supercars driver.
“So, I had high expectations for myself that I didn’t do, so sticking a microphone in my hand is the next best thing.”
Spending last weekend reporting at the OTR SuperSprint, Robinson was happy with her accommodation for the event, sleeping directly above pit lane.
Enjoying the sound of rattle guns as her alarm clock, the presenter shared her excitement on her social accounts.
Aware she approaches her reporting role from a different perspective, Robinson is keen to share the personal side to what the drivers go through during a race weekend.
“There are massive shoes to fill and I know I’m very different,” she said.
“I come at it from the TV background and the Hi-5 thing, but it’s everything to me, it takes so much skill to be a driver and I want to show that.
“I love this sport so much and everything that’s in it.”
The Repco Supercars Championship field will return to Victoria for the Winton SuperSprint across May 28-30. Tickets are available here.
The event will be broadcast live on Foxtel and will be streamed on Kayo with highlights on 7 and 7 Plus.
