In collaboration with team partner Melbourne Indigenous Transition School (MITS), a school and boarding program that supports students from remote or regional communities in accessing education in Melbourne. The artwork was designed by Lorraine Kabbindi White, who is a MITS boarding house manager and Darwin born Indigenous artist.
The story depicted within the livery is based on ‘The First Bees’ and the ‘Freshwater Mermaids’ artworks created by Kabbindi.
The three different colours each represent the bees. Kubbulak, Kardderre and Nabiwu. Kubbulak belongs to the mardku moiety, and Kardderre and Nabiwu belong to Ngarradjku moiety. The artwork captures their first flight out of their human bodies.
Kabbindi used natural pigments all sourced from her family’s Mok Clan – Ankung Djang (Sugar bag dreaming) estate on the upper Liverpool River, Arnhem Land, NT.
To get into the spirit of the round, Troy Herfoss, along with Supercars drivers David Reynolds and Lee Holdsworth visited MITS students in their classroom last week to engage with them about motorsport and the upcoming Indigenous Round in Darwin.
On the same afternoon, MITS alumni visited the Penrite Racing Supercars workshop to get a closer look at Herfoss’s CBR1000RR-R SP Honda Superbike and Holdsworth and Reynolds Supercars.
After seeing the livery for the first time, Troy Herfoss said: “It’s really cool to be supporting the indigenous round and aligning ourselves with Penrite Racing supercars team again. It was a lot of fun spending the day with Lee, Dave and the team in Melbourne during our visit to MITS. Partnering with the school and connecting to an organisation that supports young Aboriginal people from regional Victoria and the Darwin region who want to access education in Melbourne has been great and I am proud our teams are supporting this. I’m also looking forward to showing off the new livery of course.”
Herfoss will also celebrate his 100th race start at Hidden Valley in race 1 on Saturday 18th June, making the round all the more special.
“I’m pretty excited, its a great milestone in my career and I’m proud that I’ve come this far and have been lucky enough to ride a motorbike at the highest level in Australia for that long, its pretty cool.” Herfoss added.
Car #26 Penrite Racing Supercars driver, David Reynolds, said: “I love the Indigenous Round concept. We’re celebrating the oldest living culture in the world which is very cool. My partner has rich Indigenous heritage and is from Darwin so this round has special significance for me. It was also good to give the MITS students a look an insight into our world at the workshop. I can’t wait to get on track at Darwin.”
MITS Executive Director, Edward Tudor, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with the team at Penrite Racing/Penrite Honda for this year’s Indigenous Round. It is very special to be celebrating our wonderful students, their communities and their cultures while racing on Larrakia Country. The generosity the team have shown MITS and our students has been greatly appreciated.”
Penrite Racing produced this unique livery in conjunction with its paint supplier PPG and vinyl partners Graphic Art Mart and Mac Tac.
Images courtesy of Gerardo Diaz @diaz83_authentic
