Supercars teams join Erebus’ COVID-19 cause

The broader Supercars community has joined Erebus Motorsport’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was announced yesterday that the Melbourne-based team has begun production of potentially life-saving medical supplies.

Among devices designed, in conjunction with Supercars Medical Delegate Dr Carl Le, are full-face masks and a protective perspex box designed to protect health care workers from infected patients.

“We know that there’s a storm coming,” Dr Carl said of the COVID-19 situation in Australia.

“We don’t know the size of this storm, some people are calling it a tsunami.

“I think we’re in a better position than overseas, we don’t predict that we’re going to run out of ventilators and such, but you can never be too sure.

“These are not commercial ventures. We stand nothing to gain from this, quite the opposite.

“We’re investing our time and money; thank you [Erebus owner] Betty Klimenko for funding this as well at a preliminary stage just to get this out there.”

Erebus CEO Barry Ryan revealed rival Supercars teams have come to the party to offer their resources and assistance.

“We really want to get it out there so we can get the maximum support, so I’ve just sent an email to all of the team owners and obviously they have all started replying with ‘yeah we can do this, we can help with this’,” said Ryan.

“I’m sure our community of Supercars teams, their network of their sponsorship groups and all of their partners will be able to help with anything we want pretty much.

“The next couple of days are going to pretty exciting to get this off the ground and make sure we can deliver all these things if they’re needed.”

Supercars technical manager Campbell Little is among others to have put their hand up, beginning 3D printing of the full-face masks including adaptor pieces.

Ryan was pleased with overall progress to date.

“We’re into full production on some of the things now to make sure that they’re available when people need it,” he said.

“And Dr Carl is working with his colleagues to make sure that they’re actually exactly what they need and it’s looking pretty positive.

“We’re not trying to save the world, we’re just trying to have some options there in case it gets to a point where they run out of the normal types they use.”

The eight-episode docuseries The Inside Line – A Season with Erebus Motorsport premieres on Tuesday night on Fox Sports 506 and Kayo.