THE EFFORTS of the media covering the Repco Supercars Championship have been highlighted in the annual Hino Supercars Media Awards, held at Sydney Motorsport Park on Friday night.  

Celebrating their 10^th anniversary, the awards recognise high achievement within the Australian motorsport media industry across the journalism, photography, video / TV, social media, broadcast and publications that cover the sport throughout the year. 

Founded in 2012, the awards have since become a staple of the local media industry.  

Hino Australia Vice President of Brand and Franchise development Richard Emery was on hand to present at the function, held following practice for the opening round of the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship in Sydney. 

Journalist Andrew van Leeuwen won the coveted Journalist of the year award for his work covering Supercars on global website, motorsport.com.  

It was the Perth-based journalist’s second consecutive award in the category – his 2021 efforts recognised for several key breaking news stories and for showcasing Supercars racing on the globally viewed media platform.  

Van Leeuwen also took home the award for ‘Best Supercars News Story’ for breaking the news regarding David Reynolds’ vaccination status, that would ultimately see the popular driver benched for three of the four events held at Sydney Motorsport Park late last year.  

Speedcafe.com journalist Simon Chapman was highly commended for two stories, which polled second and third among awards judges in the news story category.  

Veteran journalist Mark Fogarty claimed the ‘Best feature story’ award for an in-depth piece in Wheels Magazine profiling outgoing Triple Eight Race Engineering boss, Roland Dane.  

The Race Torque placed well in the features category: Dale Rodgers; in-depth feature with Cooldrive Racing just missing the podium, while the TRT Bathurst Notebook series – anchored by Mark Walker – placed third.

Speedcafe.com claimed the ‘Best Media outlet’ award for their ongoing efforts as the leading Australian news site covering the sport, with the V8 Sleuth and The Race Torque claiming podium spots in the category.  

It was Speedcafe’s second consecutive award in the media outlet category.  

As always, the photography categories were highly contested with the quality of imagery produced across the Supercars championship continuing to be remarkably high.  

Supercars photographer Mark Horsburgh claimed the best on-track photo award for a moody shot of the Supercars field heading towards turn one at Sydney Motorsport Park, in both pouring rain and under lights.  

Horsburgh then tied with fellow expert snapper Daniel Kalisz for the ‘Best Feature Photo’ as the pair were both commended for similar shots showcasing the celebrations of Bathurst 1000 winners Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth – laying on top of their winning Walkinshaw Andretti United Holden Commodore complete with Peter Brock trophy and confetti.  

Kalisz’s broader body of work was recognised with his fourth victory in the coveted ‘Photographer of the Year’ category.  

The Race Torque’s Mark Walker placed second in the On-track image category for his Bathurst winners shot (below) and third in the feature image class for ‘calm before the storm’ (cover image, above).

Tickford Racing’s video production that saw Cameron Waters take his Monster Energy Ford Mustang to the banks of Premier Speedway in Warrnambool won the award for ‘Best Video Production’.  

Mitch Robinson was awarded the ‘Media Manager of the year’ award for his efforts promoting Tickford Racing throughout the 2021 Championship season.  

Tickford’s rivals at the Red Bull Ampol Racing team didn’t go home empty handed – team PR Mitch McEvoy accepting the ‘best use of Social Media award’  for their team’s efforts throughout 2021, which included building a Tik Tok audience of over 200,000 people. 

The best Radio Show / Podcast category was hotly contested with six nominees receiving votes from the awards judging panel.  

The Castrol Motorsport News Podcast, hosted by Andrew van Leeuwen and Stefan Bartholomaeus and produced by the team at V8 Sleuth won the prize.  

The ABC’s coverage of the Bathurst 1000 was highly commended, while TRT’s On the Grid and our good mate Greg Rust, and his Rusty’s Garage podcast, tied for third.

Mark Larkham was awarded as the best broadcaster covering Supercars for the third consecutive year.  

Finally, two inductees to the Supercars Media Awards hall of fame were added to a roster that includes the who’s who of the local motorsport media industry.  

Renowned photographer Dirk Klynsmith was added to the roster, following his full-time retirement from the sport early last year.  

Klynsmith flew from Queensland to accept the award in person. 

Meanwhile, Legendary PR figure Tim Pemberton was also inducted; ‘Plastic’, as he is more commonly known, is renowned in the industry for heading up Holden Motorsport’s PR efforts and his close relationship with Peter Brock for more than three decades.  

The 2021 Supercars Media awards were supported by Hino, Castrol and Supercars.  

2021 HINO SUPERCARS MEDIA AWARDS – WINNERS 

BEST ON TRACK PHOTO 

3^rd – Peter Bury: ‘Bathurst 1000 Back with a Bang’ 

2^nd – Mark Walker: ‘Bathurst winners pyro’ 

1^st – Mark Horsburgh: ‘Wet weather Supercars.. at night!’ 

BEST FEATURE PHOTO 

3^rd – Mark Walker: ‘Calm before the storm’ 

TIED RESULT: Mark Horsburgh & Daniel Kalisz for their rooftop celebration shots from the Bathurst 1000 podium.  

PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 

Special mention to Rhys Vandersyde, Peter Bury, John Morris, Peter Norton and Ross Gibb for their nominations.  

2^nd – Mark Horsburgh 

1^st – Daniel Kalisz 

HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

Dirk Klynsmith 

Tim Pemberton 

BEST VIDEO PRODUCTION 

Special mention to the Supercars Media team for their outstanding work. 

3^rd – Supercars / James Lundie ‘Race Radio’ 

2^nd – Triple Eight Race Engineering – ‘Cheers JDub Matt Hall Bathurst video’ 

1^st – Tickford Racing ‘Tickford Supercar goes speedway’ – Unanimous from all judges.  

BEST USE OF DIGITAL MEDIA 

Triple Eight Race Engineering 

BEST RADIO SHOW / PODCAST 

Special mention to all entrants for the highest quality group of nominations in this group, ever.  

=3^rd – On the Grid (The Race Torque), Rusty’s Garage 

2^nd – ABC Grandstand’s radio coverage of the Bathurst 1000 (ABC)  

1^st – Castrol Motorsport News Podcast  

BEST SUPERCARS NEWS STORY 

3^rd – Simon Chapman (Speedcafe.com) ‘Grove takes over Kelly Racing’ 

2^nd – Simon Chapman (Speedcafe.com) ‘Peter Adderton concedes defeat in ownership race’  

1^st – Andrew van Leeuwen (Motorsport.com) ‘David Reynolds vaccination story’ 

BEST SUPERCARS FEATURE STORY 

Special mention to Dale Rodgers from The Race Torque for his story embedded with Cooldrive Racing at the Bathurst 1000 

3^rd – Mark Walker (The Race Torque) ‘Bathurst Notebook Series’ 

2^nd – Simon Chapman (Speedcafe.com) ‘Quinn cleaning toilets at QR’  

1^st – Mark Fogarty (WHEELS Magazine) ‘The Man who built an empire – Roland Dane profile) 

MEDIA MANGER OF THE YEAR 

Special mention to Mitch McEvoy from Triple Eight for his outstanding work 

Special mention to Paul Glover from Supercars for his outstanding work 

1^st – Mitch Robinson (Tickford Racing) with special recognition for the Supercar v Superbike effort at Hidden Valley and more.  

BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR 

Mark Larkham 

PUBLICATION OF THE YEAR 

3^rd – The Race Torque 

2^nd – V8 Sleuth 

1^st – Speedcafe.com  

JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR 

3^rd – Mark Fogarty (various) 

2^nd – Simon Chapman (Speedcafe.com)  

1^st – Andrew van Leeuwen (Motorsport.com)