Triple Eight reveals student-designed Darwin livery

Red Bull Ampol Racing will carry a student-designed Indigenous livery in Darwin.

The team revealed its striking blue Merlin Darwin Triple Crown look on Thursday.

The special livery was designed by students of the Hunter River Clontarf Academy in Heatherbrae, New South Wales.

Triple Eight and co-naming rights sponsor Ampol are aligned with the Clontarf Foundation.

The foundation recently released its Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan.

The Clontarf Foundation helps improve the education, life skills, self-esteem and employment prospects of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men through academies in schools across Australia.

The students’ artwork tells the story of the Hunter River Clontarf Academy.

It details where the Hunter River meets the harbour and the connection that local Aboriginal people have to the water.

The artwork shows footprints along the river, which grow from small to large and illustrate the journey of leadership and growth of Clontarf students.

Circles of dots represent the local communities that the academy connects with.

A ‘blue sunrise’ represents new beginnings, denoting how students strive to become the best versions of themselves and learn from others.

Red Bull Ampol Racing driver Broc Feeney and Team Principal Jamie Whincup revealed the car at the team’s Queensland base.

There, the students saw the livery on the car for the first time.

"The car looks amazing," Feeney said.

"The students that we met today and helped us reveal the car for the first time are so talented to have created a design like this.

"It was also great to show them around the workshop and hopefully give them an experience that they will never forget.

"It’s obviously my first time at the Darwin Triple Crown competing in the Supercars Championship, but I’m ready to get up there.

"The crowd is always amazing, the weather is spot on, and I think seeing all of the cars on the grid in their Indigenous liveries is going to look really cool."

Whincup added: "It’s also humbling to think that these students were able to travel from Newcastle to Brisbane today and be the first to reveal our livery; the very livery that they created.

"This is also a great initiative by Supercars to announce that the Darwin Triple Crown would be the category’s official Indigenous event."

The 2022 season will resume in Darwin on June 17-19. Purchase your tickets now.