Mark Winterbottom is a V8 Supercars Champion (2015) and winner of the prestigious Bathurst 1000. He currently drives the No.18 Holden ZB Commodore for Team 18.

Competitive from a young age, Mark was a talented soccer player for Sydney’s Blacktown United Soccer Team before he won the local shopping centre raffle for a dirt bike, launching him into 80cc motorbike racing. Motorsport came naturally to the eight-year-old; his father Jim won two national sprint car titles and his mother June also raced in the Mini Group C category.

Ten Australian Kart Championship titles and 25 State Kart Championships titles culminated in an invitation to race in the 1999 All-Champions meeting at Japan’s Suzuka circuit, where Mark competed against current Formula One drivers including World Champion Lewis Hamilton.

Mark soon caught the attention of Ford Australia, who supported his entry in the 2001 Victorian Formula Ford Championship. The talented young racer rewarded them by coming runner up. The Kart Stars Scholarship Award and Ford sponsorship to compete in the 2002 (National) Australian Formula Ford Championship followed. So began a highly successful car-racing association that continues to this day.

Since joining FPR, the main Ford V8 Supercar team competing in the world’s most competitive touring car racing series in 2006, Mark has never finished outside of the V8 Supercar top five. His racing career to date has been full of highlights – one of his most recent victories was the 2011 Telstra 500 – and there is no doubt that his best is yet to come.

Mark also has another unique honour: he is the first Australian athlete to star in a Disney/Pixar movie with his voicing of the role of ‘Frosty’, the Australian racing car, in the hit movie Cars 2 in 2011. He has also featured on Disney’s What A Life program.

Off the track Mark is a confident and well- spoken athlete who can inspire audiences with his story of making it to the very top of his sport without the trappings that many of his contemporaries enjoyed. Mark relates well to people of all ages.