Black fern tweak for Randle's Taupō livery

Thomas Randle will sport a slightly tweaked look on his Castrol Mustang at this weekend's ITM Taupō Super 440 celebrating the Repco Supercars Championship's return to New Zealand.

The regular white, green, and red look will be complemented by two pairs of black ferns on the bonnet and rear quarter panels of the Tickford Mustang, and further black accents throughout the livery.

The Mamaku 'black fern' is native to New Zealand, and has become widely known as New Zealand's national sporting emblem.

Randle will be looking to bounce back from a torrid Melbourne SuperSprint weekend for Tickford, with the 29-year-old currently sitting ninth in the standings.

"It's always great having the opportunity to race in New Zealand and it’s cool to be able to do something special to mark the occasion with a few local touches on the car," said Randle.

"The extra black accents and black ferns on the car is a nice tribute to New Zealand motorsport. The country is just mad for motor racing and the Supercars race at Taupō last year was absolutely packed.

"I’m really looking forward to being a part of it again, and hopefully we can give it a good crack to try and clinch the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy."

Castrol's New Zealand National Sales Manager Daniel Hibberd also welcomed the one-off tweak to the #55 Mustang: “It’s fantastic to see a distinctively New Zealand look for Thomas Randle’s Castrol Racing Mustang this weekend at Taupō.

"The mamaku (black fern) is New Zealand’s fastest growing native fern tree and we certainly hope that its addition to the car translates to the Castrol Racing Tickford Mustang being the fastest car on track."

Randle's new livery is the third new livery to be revealed for the weekend, after Brad Jones Racing revealed new looks for Macauley Jones and Bryce Fullwood this morning.

Fans in Taupō can get a close-up look at the new livery during this afternoon's Track to Town, which begins at 3:45pm NZST, more details can be found here.

On-track action at the ITM Taupō Super 440 begins with two half-hour practice sessions tomorrow. Practice 1 begins at 11:45am NZST/9:45am AEST, before Practice 2 at 2:30pm NZST/12:30pm AEST.