Winterbottom slams brakes on full-time driving gig
Supercars fan favourite Mark Winterbottom will not return to the grid as a full-time driver in 2025.
Thursday’s news comes after Team 18 dropped the 2015 champion in favour of Anton De Pasqaule in August.
Preparing to race at the penultimate Gold Coast 500 round beginning on Friday, Winterbottom leaves the grid after 21 years as a full-time driver and will be exploring opportunities as a co-driver.
Winterbottom, whose contract at Team 18 expires this year, has battled to be up front in the years since winning his maiden and only championship.
Sitting 15th in the current standings, the 43-year-old won podiums this year in Melbourne and Darwin after claiming race 13 last season for the team’s first victory.
He finished 18th, with co-driver Michael Caruso, in his most recent Supercars outing at this month’s Bathurst 1000.
“The past two months has been a difficult time. Racing has been a huge part of my life for so long,” Winterbottom announced ahead of the Gold Coast 500.
“It doesn’t make it easy when you still have the fire in your belly, the red mist in your eyes.”
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After debuting in 2003 with Stone Brothers Racing, Winterbottom has gone on to claim 39 race wins, 120 podium finishes and 36 pole positions across 641 race starts.
He famously held off seven-time champion Jamie Whincup in a dramatic finish to win the 2013 Bathurst 1000 with co-driver Steven Richards at Ford Performance Racing.
The Sydney product celebrated his 600th consecutive race start in Tasmania in August – something no other driver has achieved in Supercars history.
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