Special cause behind Super3 rookie's bonnet tribute

Ryan Gilroy is racing for a cause this weekend in Townsville.

The Dunlop Super3 Series rookie will have a specially designed bonnet on his Holden VF Commodore as part of his efforts to raise funds for those affected by the Singleton bus tragedy.

Ten people from the New South Wales town, from which Gilroy hails, were killed in a crash last month in the Hunter Valley.

“Being in a tight-knit mining community such as Singleton, people are always connected through someone that you know,” Gilroy told V8 Sleuth.

“It’s never nice to see people in the community hurting and grieving like that.”

The 21-year-old worked together with artist Jordan Lucky to create the tribute bonnet which will appear at the Townsville 500 starting Friday and be auctioned online via Grays.

“I wanted to do it because Singleton and the Hunter Valley in general has been so supportive of my racing career thus far and they continue to support me in whatever direction I choose to go, which I’m forever thankful for,” said Gilroy.

“With their support, I feel like I take a little bit and I thought it was about time for me to give back and show my support to the community which I am so passionate about.

“I’m very grateful for the partners that have jumped onboard for the project, so Stockland Green Hills, the Newcastle Weekly and NewFM. Without their support we wouldn’t have been able to do this really cool project.

“And obviously Jordan Lucky, who is a very well renowned street artist in Newcastle, it all just fit in really well.

“The idea behind it is we wanted to put in some iconic landscapes and monuments of Singleton, so obviously being a mining community you have got the coal trains in there and we have got the second largest sundial in the southern hemisphere here as well.

“So that’s on the car and just other little bits of myself and Jordan and Singleton that we have put into the artwork.

“It’s something that the community of Singleton can connect with.”

Gilroy, who drives for the Morse family’s AIM Motorsport team, opened the season with a round podium in Newcastle before having a tougher time of it in Perth.

Townsville marks Round 3 of the Dunlop Series.

“It was awesome to roll out at Newcastle and pop it up on the podium and grab some silverware in front of the home crowd,” he said.

“It was just good to know that we were in the fight this year and we can take it to Jobe (Stewart) and (Cameron) McLeod, which was really cool.

“Perth we had some mechanical dramas but we’ve put in a lot of hard work in the background before Townsville and we’re ready to go, we’re ready to push hard.”

Stewart leads the Super3 standings, sitting 27 points clear of McLeod.