Red Bull Ampol Racing livery lands in Toowoomba
Red Bull Ampol Racing reveals 2024 livery
Triple Eight squad wows fans at 'Livery Landing' in Toowoomba
Jamie Whincup, Scott Pye locked in for enduros
Red Bull Ampol Racing has launched its 2024 season in epic style, revealing its new livery in a special event at Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport.
Wellcamp Airport, in new recruit Will Brown’s hometown, offered a unique backdrop for Triple Eight Race Engineering’s livery launch.
Brown and Broc Feeney were on hand to mark the occasion, with Triple Eight opting for a revised look for the upcoming season, which commences in Bathurst on February 23-25.
The #87 and #88 Chevrolet Camaros will carry a predominantly blue look, complete with the signature colours of Red Bull, which has backed the team since 2013.
The Camaro squad will also carry backing from ACDelco, Ampol Amplify Premium Fuels, Chevrolet Racing, HP, Harvey Norman, JGI, National Storage, New Holland, Quad Lock, Supercheap Auto, ToolPro, Wurth, and Complete Parts & Equipment Solutions.
Triple Eight’s special ‘Livery Landing’ public season launch also treated a bumper crowd to an array of partner activations, a ‘show and shine’ exhibition, an aerobatic display by Red Bull pilot Matt Hall, and burnout and pit stop demonstrations.
The team rolled out at Queensland Raceway last week to shake down both new-for-2024 cars, complete in ‘Livery Landing’ promotional colours. The race livery will debut at the same venue in pre-season testing on Monday.
"The cars look amazing. To be joining the team and having those iconic Red Bull Ampol Racing colours on my car is fantastic,” said Brown, who himselt is a pilot.
“To reveal the car for the first time in Toowoomba and to show it off to all the locals is pretty exciting to have it in my hometown.
"My family have a small used car dealership in town, and we had a lot of people during the week come in asking about the launch and were really excited about it. It’s been the talk of the town and it’s awesome that we could bring this cool event to life.
“The next major event for us is the team’s pre-season test day on Monday which is going to be exciting to get a full day in the car. We’ve done the shakedown which was just a teaser, and now to get the full day is awesome.
“We’re going to run through the normal test plan and get myself more comfortable in the car because it’s brand new to me, so Andrew and I will be working closely with each other. It’ll be a big day, but I’m really looking forward to it.”
The team also used the occasion to confirm team boss Jamie Whincup will return alongside Feeney for the enduros, with Scott Pye to partner Brown.
Brown will be engineered by Andrew Edwards, with Martin Short continuing as Feeney’s race engineer in the #88 Camaro. Edwards and Short will work under Technical Director Jeromy Moore and Team Manager Mark Dutton.
Feeney, who won five races in 2023 — including the Sandown 500 with Whincup — said: "The cars look clean – simple but very effective. As long as it goes fast I’ll be happy, but it certainly looks the goods.
“It’s great for the team to return to these massive public launches. I feel like we’ve taken it a massive step up this year and put in a lot of effort to make sure it was a great event, and everyone got behind it; team partners, staff, members, fans – they were all super supportive of it.
“We had a really good shakedown during the week and we got to run through a couple of things before our test day on Monday. The cars are a little bit different with a different aero package, but it’s just getting back to work and seeing what’s in our toolbox and what we can improve on from last year. Hopefully we can use Monday’s test day to make some gains before the start of the season.”
Whincup, who has been with Triple Eight since 2006, was delighted to reveal the team’s new look at such an event.
"What an amazing event – Toowoomba has really turned it on for us today,” the seven-time Supercars champion said.
"It was unreal to shut down Wellcamp Airport for a family fun day of race cars and planes in front of literally thousands of people, a very proud moment for us.
“This season launch is the biggest we’ve ever seen from a Supercars team and I’m so proud of the guys and girls at Triple Eight, alongside our longstanding co-naming rights partners Red Bull and Ampol for the tireless effort they have put in to making this event a great success for the local community.
“Our ‘Livery Landing’ kicks off an exciting season with what I believe is the most exciting young driver line-up the series has seen in Broc and Will, and I can’t wait to get to the Mountain for Round 1.”
Tickets for the Thrifty Bathurst 500, set for February 23-25, are on sale now.
