54 Facts About Mark Winterbottom

Mark "Frosty" Winterbottom was born on 20 May 1981 and is an Australian professional racing driver.

Mark Winterbottom currently competes in the Repco Supercars Championship, driving the No 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Team 18.

Mark Winterbottom made his motorsport debut racing motorbikes, racing in club level 50 cc events, progressing to the 80 cc class and competing in fields that included riders Anthony Gobert and Chad Reed.

Mark Winterbottom competed in his first kart race in the Cadet class at Wollongong and would continue racing karts successfully to the age of 21.

Mark Winterbottom won ten Australian Kart Championships and 25 state Kart Championships during his rise through Australia's karting ranks.

In 2001 Mark Winterbottom was crowned as Australian Formula A Kart Champion.

In 2001, Mark Winterbottom made his Formula Ford debut in the Victorian Formula Ford Championship.

Mark Winterbottom raced to runner-up honours after winning four races out of six rounds, missing one round due to karting commitments.

Mark Winterbottom won the Ford Kart Stars Scholarship Championship, gaining a Ford-supported drive in the 2002 Australian Formula Ford Championship.

Mark Winterbottom finished second in the 2002 Australian Formula Ford Championship with two round victories, five race wins and two pole positions.

Mark Winterbottom was presented with 2002 Avon Formula Ford Rookie of the Year Award.

In 2003, Mark Winterbottom became the Konica V8 Supercar Series champion in his debut season.

Mark Winterbottom raced with Ford team Stone Brothers Racing to five round victories and six pole positions in an almost perfect season.

Mark Winterbottom missed out on making a clean sweep of the series due to an engine failure in the fifth round at Phillip Island.

Mark Winterbottom debuted in the V8 Supercars Championship at the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 with SBR, sharing a BA Falcon with Mark Noske.

Mark Winterbottom was the recipient of the Mike Kable Young Gun Award.

Mark Winterbottom joined Ford V8 Supercar team Larkham Motor Sport and competed in the 2004 and 2005 V8 Supercar championships.

Mark Winterbottom joined Ford Performance Racing as driver of the number 5 Ford Credit Falcon for the 2006 and 2007 V8 Supercar championship seasons.

Mark Winterbottom claimed his first V8 Supercars round victory co-driving with Jason Bright at the 2006 Betta Electrical 500 and gained second place overall round finishes at Pukekohe and Surfers Paradise.

Phillip Island saw Mark Winterbottom achieve his first V8 Supercars sprint race victory.

Mark Winterbottom achieved 5th in the championship, with the highlight being winning his first solo V8 Supercars round at the Desert 400 in Bahrain, preserving FPR's undefeated record at the international round.

Mark Winterbottom gained four pole positions, including his first at Pukekohe Park, which was followed by poles at the Sandown 500, Bathurst 1000 and at the Desert 400.

Mark Winterbottom went off late in the race whilst leading the 2007 Bathurst 1000.

Mark Winterbottom's highlight of 2008 was a dominant round victory at the BigPond 400 at Wanneroo's Barbagallo Raceway in Perth, Western Australia.

Mark Winterbottom achieved pole position and wins in all three races.

Mark Winterbottom won the 2008 City of Ipswich 400 at Queensland Raceway.

Mark Winterbottom experienced a challenging season, finishing in fifth position in the championship, eight places ahead of team-mate Steven Richards.

Mark Winterbottom's highlights included an event win at the Gold Coast 600 and pole positions for Race 3 of the championship at the Hamilton 400 in New Zealand, and race 5 at Winton Motor Raceway.

In race 6 at Winton, Mark Winterbottom recovered from the difficulties of race 5 to finish in second position.

Mark Winterbottom won a race at the V8 Supercars Challenge non-championship round at the Australian Grand Prix.

In 2010, Mark Winterbottom was a distant yet mathematical chance of winning the championship title heading into the final round, the Sydney 500.

In 2011, Mark Winterbottom finished a distant third to the Triple Eight Race Engineering cars.

Mark Winterbottom scored two wins, at the Gold Coast 600 with international co-driver Richard Lyons and in the final race of the year at the Sydney 500.

Mark Winterbottom finished the season in third position, with three race wins in the middle of the season.

Mark Winterbottom claimed the coveted Barry Sheene Medal for the best and fairest driver in the series.

In 2013, Mark Winterbottom won the Bathurst 1000 alongside ex-teammate Steven Richards on 13 October.

However, due to a poor start to the championship, Mark Winterbottom was only able to finish fourth in the championship, with three race wins.

In 2014 Mark Winterbottom started the season very well, leading the championship by 161 points after the 2014 Skycity Triple Crown in June.

Mark Winterbottom did not win another race after the Darwin round.

At the 2014 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, Mark Winterbottom was a chance of going back-to-back late in the race, until an incident with an attacking Craig Lowndes resulted in him dropping back, and eventually recovering to take a fifth-place finish.

In 2015, Prodrive Racing Australia debuted the Ford FG X Falcon, and it brought considerable success almost immediately, with Mark Winterbottom taking four wins out of four races at the non-championship V8 Supercars Challenge event at the Australian Grand Prix.

Mark Winterbottom then achieved eight race wins in the middle part of the championship year, including a clean-sweep of the 2015 Castrol Edge Townsville 400.

Mark Winterbottom had a slow start to his championship defence, not achieving a podium finish until the fifth race of the season at Symmons Plains.

Mark Winterbottom secured sixth in the championship for the second consecutive year, albeit only after Craig Lowndes' late retirement at the season-ending Newcastle 500.

In 2018, Prodrive Racing Australia was again renamed, to Tickford Racing, and Mark Winterbottom began the year with a top five Saturday result at the Adelaide 500 before a pit lane penalty dropped him down the field in the Sunday race.

Mark Winterbottom's fortunes did not improve, with Tickford Racing enduring a difficult start to the season until Winterbottom scored both his and Tickford Racing's first race podium of the year at the fifth event at Barbagallo.

Mark Winterbottom announced ahead of the 2018 Newcastle 500 that he would be moving to Team 18 in 2019, the first time he will have driven a Holden in his career.

In 2014 and 2015, Mark Winterbottom appeared in the season-opening two-driver round of the Stock Car Brasil championship, for Voxx Racing.

Just like Mark Winterbottom, Gomes went on to win his respective championship title in 2015.

Mark Winterbottom returned to Brazil in 2018, finishing eleventh at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace driving with Atila Abreu, despite starting from the rear of the grid.

Mark Winterbottom is the son of the 1969 and 1974 Australian Sprintcar Champion and former chairman of the Sprintcar Control Council of Australia, Jim Mark Winterbottom.

Mark Winterbottom made the decision to give up soccer to pursue his motor racing ambitions at the age of eleven.

Mark Winterbottom was used as the voice of the character 'Frosty' in the Australian Release of the 2011 Pixar film Cars 2.

Mark Winterbottom appeared as a contestant on Season 3 of the Seven Network's celebrity series Australia's Greatest Athlete in 2011.