Confidence Boost

There was a collective paddock gasp when it was revealed 2007 Supercars champion Garth Tander lost his seat at Garry Rogers Motorsport to Richie Stanaway, as part of a deal with new sponsor Boost Mobile. The team has struggled for results ever since but remains resolute that its youth policy and strong team culture can lift the squad back up the grid.

- John Bannon

Barry Rogers doesn’t hold back when assessing the progress of the team his father Garry Rogers built. “To look where we currently are, to be honest with you, is embarrassing.” That’s the brutal assessment of the 2019 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship season so far from Boost Mobile Racing team boss Barry Rogers. This talent spotting and generally top-10 running outfit has gone backwards in 2019, at least in terms of results on the track.

Off the track, they couldn’t look better. New sponsor Boost Mobile has brought an additional layer of professionalism to the marketing and promotional piece, but in a results-driven game the only gloss that counts is being inside the top 10 more often than not. For a team that won races with Holden and Volvo under the current-generation rules, the slide backwards is more pronounced.

“We are 100 per cent disappointed about where we are,” Barry Rogers admits.

“It does get frustrating. You have to stay strong as a team when it’s like this because if you start finger-pointing and things like that the whole thing implodes. We have an incredible workforce and the same group of people, the same nucleus of people that built the first Car of the Future for us in 2013.

“We are looking internally. We never stop developing the car. We feel as though our car is a good car. Is it the best car? No, it’s not, but it’s a good car. We’ve just got to continue to work hard. There’s improvement in everybody, including all of us and the drivers.

“So we’ve just got to keep at it and dig ourselves out of it. Let’s be honest, we are in a bit of a slump, a bit of a hole, and we’ve got to get out of there. So we’ll just keep chipping away and working hard and we will get there.”