The Barry Sheene Medal is an annual award honouring the achievements of a driver in the Supercars Championship,[1][2] an Australian touring car series.[3]Tony Cochrane, the chairman of the championship's organising body Australian Vee Eight Supercar Company (AVESCO),[a][4] instigated the award in 2003.[5][6] The medal is named after the two-time Grand Prix motorcycle world champion and motor racing television commentator Barry Sheene.[2][7] It is presented to the driver adjudged to have displayed "outstanding leadership, media interaction, character, personality, fan appeal and sportsmanship throughout the season".[1] A panel of motor racing journalists individually award three drivers scores of three, two and one points after every event of the season.[2][5] The results are announced at the series' end-of-season gala in Sydney.[b][1][5]
Drivers consider it the second-most prestigious award after the drivers' championship,[10] and it is frequently likened to Australian rules football's Brownlow Medal and rugby league's Dally M Medal.[10][11] The inaugural recipient was the Stone Brothers Racing driver Marcos Ambrose in 2003. He won his first drivers' championship title that year.[12] Ambrose claimed a second championship title the following year and earned a second medal win.[13] Since then, four drivers have won the award more than once: Craig Lowndes, Jamie Whincup, Scott McLaughlin and David Reynolds. Australian drivers have earned the medal seventeen times and New Zealanders four times.[1] Lowndes has the most victories of any competitor, collecting the award five times: in 2005, 2006, 2011, 2013 and 2015.[1]Chaz Mostert was named the 2023 recipient, his first victory.[14]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
