Boost boss offers Lowndes $50,000 to swap cars with Stanaway

Adderton, whose Boost outfit is the title sponsor at Garry Rogers Motorsport, has been vocal on social media during recent Supercars rounds, defending GRM's young driver line-up and slating the squad's car speed.

While widely interpreted as criticism of the team, Adderton says the posts are in fact levelled at what he sees as a "broken" Supercars system, that leaves smaller teams unable to fight against powerhouses like Triple Eight and DJR Team Penske.

He's also taken exception to a perceived lack of support for the young Richie Stanaway/James Golding driver line-up from the likes of Craig Lowndes.

To prove that GRM's issue isn't its drivers, Adderton has thrown down a challenge to Lowndes. If he can go quicker in a GRM Holden than Stanaway – when back at full fitness – can go in a Triple Eight Holden, he'll give the seven-time Bathurst winner $50,000.

"I'm getting a little frustrated with the ageing Supercars drivers continuing to say that our team has a problem because we don't have experience in the car," Adderton told Motorsport.com.

"That becomes really annoying when I hear that.

"It's simply not the case. If that's the case, I'll put up $50,000, and we'll put Richie in a Red Bull car, and Craig in our car, and let's have a match race. $50,000 to Craig if he can beat Richie if you swap the cars out.

"Look at the team last year when they had Garth Tander and he finished 13th and the team finished seventh or eighth in the championship. We were with [James] Courtney and those guys [at Walkinshaw Racing in 2018], well we were at the back of the grid at every race.

"This is just a bunch of ageing Supercars drivers trying to keep themselves relevant. We need younger blood in the sport. They're not doing the drivers or the team any good by giving them that lack of confidence.

"I don't care if you threw Lewis Hamilton in our car, it's not going to go any faster.

"As I said, I'm happy if Craig Lowndes wants to make a bet with me. I'll bet him $50,000, and I'll put Richie in their car, and he can go in our car, and we'll do a match race lap and see who goes quicker.

"If he can beat Richie, in our car, I'll give him a $50,000 cheque on the spot. If he doesn't, he gives me $50,000. He won't take the bet..."

Elaborating on his criticism of the category itself, Adderton says the shape of the cost-cutting measures for 2020 expected to be announced later this week are "critical" to whether there will be Boost-backed cars on the grid next season.

"Supercars needs to stop talking and start taking action," he said.

"All I ever hear about is 2021, 2022, well guess what? We'll just wait until they get it right. We don't need to spend a cent, and neither does any sponsor, they can just wait for Supercars to get it right.

"If we all just wait for Supercars to get it right, guess what? There will be four cars on the grid.

"They need to act in 2020, not 2021, they need to make real changes and they need to make them fast. We will not be around this time next year if this continues on. And that's not just sour grapes, saying 'we're not going fast enough so we're going to leave'. We understand how the sport works. But when we know that when we turn up to the grid, along with the majority of the teams, that we can't win a race... what's the point?

"Someone needs to pull their finger out at Supercars and make a decision. Not manage by committee, tell the teams 'listen, here's the deal, this is what we're going to do in the interest of the sport and the fans. And if any of you guys don't like it, fine. Go run a two-car drift team. Because we're not interesting in having cars that aren't competitive against each other'.

"[The upcoming announcements are] absolutely critical to our ongoing involvement. They've got to make real changes, not subtle changes, not cosmetic changes, not changes to make people feel good. I mean real changes with real impact, otherwise we're gone. We'll go do something else.

"And when they get it right, and the sport is where it needs to be, we'll come back in."