Mark ‘Frosty’ Winterbottom

Mark ‘Frosty’ Winterbottom, a V8 Supercar driver with Ford Performance Racing, is ranked one of the most popular drivers in the V8 Supercar Championship by Ford fans and racing fans alike.

At his incredible car-racing debut in the 2001 Victorian Formula Ford Championship Mark Winterbottom claimed runner-up honours despite missing a round and has since firmly established himself as one of V8 Supercars’ brightest stars.

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 Winterbottom 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.

More about Mark Winterbottom:

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 making his main V8 Supercar Championship Series debut in 2004, Mark has:

• gained 16 Pole positions, 15 race wins and 40 podium (top three) finishes
• qualified on the front row (1st or 2nd starting grid position) 35 times and within the top four 54 times
• gained 66 top three race results (41%), 84 top five race results (52%) and 127 top ten results from 159 races (80%) with FPR since 2006.