Behind the Visor with Mark Winterbottom

16 June 2014

Renee Winterbottom shares family photos and talks life as a V8 Supercar driver’s wife and manager, mum of two boys and fighting over the TV remote.

We’ve seen him dominate on track, but ahead of the SKYCITY Triple Crown, Mark Winterbottom’s wife Renee gave v8supercars.com.au the goss on our Championship leader and what life is like for the family of four.

Renee describes them as a regular new-age family juggling work commitments with kids, and in their case, a bit of travel. She helps manage Mark’s schedule, accounts and commitments away from the track, utilising her business degree; and looks after their two young boys, Oliver, 3, and Austin, 1.

Having met Mark when she was 16, her brother also racing karts, Renee has been a “WAG” of motorsport for years.

“We’ve been together a long time, I’ve known him since he was a pimply faced teenager!” Renee laughed.

"And now he is my handsome husband," she added, to be nice. 

In fact, back in the day she was a mechanic on her brother’s kart – so her racing knowledge goes deeper than fans may think.

Renee has seen Mark’s rise in motor racing, stepped in to help manage the ‘Frosty’ brand as it has evolved, and is usually at Mark’s side at a race meeting, often with their boys.

“I don’t want to stand there and nod, I love understanding what’s going on,” Renee said of being at the track. “I have a different perspective of the sport because I’ve grown up into an adult around it, with my family and my husband.

“I don’t think that there are better drivers than my husband – and most wives are probably like that – but I’ve followed his career. He’s very talented and when everything goes right, he demonstrates that on track.

“We’re very passionate about what we do and doing it together as a family… from running the business to race weekend stuff, there’s nothing that I’m not involved in, because it makes Mark’s life easier…

“We work really well as a team, I’m super organised and he loves that, because he knows if he asks me to do something it’s going to get done and he doesn’t need to double check.”

While they operate to a set-in-stone racing schedule – which can sees Mark away for a week at a time, with promotional duties taking up days before a V8 Supercars event – for Renee, it’s just business. That’s part of why she and the boys are at the track so often. But don’t be fooled into thinking there’s much quality time there.

“You’re lucky if you see him for 15 minutes a day, he’s back-to-back with commitments, whether it’s debriefing with his engineers to make the car go faster, autograph sessions at merchandise, or sponsor visits in corporate boxes… We try and schedule a little 15-minute lunch if we’re lucky…

“That few seconds you might see him give the kids a kiss on TV or before the race – that’s the time he gets to see them.

“But he knows that we’re there and he knows that we’re watching him and that’s really important to him.”

Frosty expressed after New Zealand how much he’d missed the boys when they didn’t make the trip over – and mentioned Oliver’s new love for trophies as he’s rocketed to the front of the Championship.

“He was pretty disappointed I didn’t win because now he thinks I’m going to get a trophy every time I race!” he laughed.

“It’s cool to win, go home, see the kids, I look forward to that.”

Renee agrees – he loves to win.

So, what is the Pepsi Max Crew racer like once he gets home?

“Mark is lucky to have his passion as his job but when we have a day off we’re not doing motorsport things – we’re taking the kids to the park, we’ll go out for lunch or we’ll go for a walk around the Tan in the city.

“We make sure we’ve got that balance – we try and get away for some water skiing for some weekends off in summer and catch up with friends when we’re home.”

On a normal evening, Renee cooks dinner for 5.30pm – “that’s when you eat when you have young kids!” – her Italian background meaning her most welcomed dish is spaghetti and meatballs.

It’s Mark’s job to clean up and do the dishes, and they try to get outside, feed the dogs, play basketball or soccer, or have the boys get out the peddle cars her dad made them.

“Then we have baths, read a book – we take one kid each, whichever child chooses an adult first – and then Mark and I are on the couch watching a bit of TV..."

While they’ll both cozy up to a showing of Revenge, Renee admits they have different television tastes.

“We don’t agree much on shows – he watches Pawn Stars and all those things… the American shows. LA Ink, the tattoo shows, we watch them, but I’m into reality TV!

"We are into 'The Voice' at the moment, Mark loves music and the judges make us laugh."

However, she says, they will always watch a race back through when Mark has a win!

Family time is one of the most important things for Frosty who was on “kid duty” when chatting to v8supercars.com.au in the week – while, he said, one was attacking him and the other was kissing him.

“They’re his mental and emotional support,” Renee said.

“He loves seeing them before and after a race. They relax him, and if he’s wound up about anything, he’s not when he sees them.”

Can Mark Winterbottom increase his 101-point Championship lead at the SKYCITY Triple Crown this week? Buy your tickets now and stay tuned to v8supercars.com.au for the latest news from the Top End.

Keep up to date with the Winterbottom family by following Mark on Facebook, and Renee on Instagram.