Dark Horse lifts the lid on Erebus

Dark Horse, a three-part series on Erebus Motorsport, begins this week on Kayo Sports, Foxtel and Binge. The documentary was launched in Melbourne last night with many of the team’s figures over the journey – including Betty & Daniel Klimenko, Barry Ryan, Michael Masi and Ryan Madison – along with Supercars Chairman Barclay Nettlefold, commentator Mark Skaife and the doco’s producer Andrew Janson.

Commissioned by Klimenko and produced by Janson at Apatchie Media, the series features three episodes of about 45 minutes each. It presents the team’s story through interviews with former and current drivers, staff and paddock figures.

The tone is direct, with cameras present in meetings and in the garage. It follows events as they unfolded as well as with retrospective commentary.

Klimenko was adamant that this should not be a puff piece, and her instructions to Janson were not to sanitise, which is why he filmed some of the team’s disgruntled former drivers including David Reynolds, Will Davison and Lee Holdsworth.

The early part of the show is about the formation of the team from a Porsche drive day with Peter Hackett, to backing him in a GT program and then building a team which won the Bathurst 12-Hour at its second attempt with Thomas Jäger, Alexander Roloff and Bernd Schneider behind the wheel.

With that box ticked, Klimenko looked for bigger challenges and bought Stone Brothers Racing and converted it from Ford to Mercedes-Benz under the Car of the Future rules. Without the support of the Australian arm, Erebus went to AMG/HWA as a customer and built her cars from there in around 120 days from scratch.

Some of the people from the early build program are interviewed, including Ryan Madison and Ben Croke along with Masi, who looked so young Klimenko talk about him as a ’15-year-old’.

Eventually Erebus dumped the Mercedes and went to Holden and now Chevrolet and won the Bathurst 1000 – twice – and the Teams’ and Drivers’ Championships in 2023.

But the road was not always smooth, and that is where the warts get exposed. Lee Holdsworth, Will Davison and David Reynolds talk about their departures and some of the acrimony that either led to the parting of ways, or developed because of the parting.

Brodie Kostecki, Coca Cola Racing by Erebus Camaro at Adelaide Street Circuit on Sunday November 26, 2023 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Mark Horsburgh / LAT Images)

And, of course, the Brodie Kostecki situation last year is covered too after leading Erebus to the twin titles in 2023, and then missing the opening races of 2024. The whole scenario is treated with limited commentary from those involved, but both Betty and Daniel note that the details of what went on are private… and that is where it remains.

Footage from the earlier television projects is included, showing Barry Ryan in a way that shaped some of the online and media commentary. But the intent of this series is to document events rather than seek to shift perceptions, and it looks at the external pressures on the teams and its people.

Kostecki himself speaks in a measured way, giving an insight into the team’s championship campaign and its challenges before talking about last year in an interview that was recorded prior to the Bathurst win.

Will Brown’s move to Triple Eight is outlined plainly, showing how the decision was received and what effect it had inside the team. The approach taken is to show outcomes rather than point to blame.

Roland Dane, Ryan Story and Tony Cochrane are featured too, giving their insight into the force that was Betty Klimenko when she swept into the series, shaking the conservative boys’ club at its core.

But at the heart of the series is the climb to the top, the drop down and then the rise again… then the repeat of the process. It documents the balance between engineering progress, execution at events, and the toll that comes with competing at the front, and there is plenty in it for both fans of the sport and newbies, but not in the way that F1’s Drive to Survive sensationalise the behaviours of people in pitlane with one-sided skews.

Dark Horse is three episodes of about 45 minutes each. Episode one airs 12 September, episode two 13 September, episode three 14 September. Streaming on Kayo Sports, Foxtel and Binge.

Disclaimer: Betty Klimenko is a shareholder of Auto Action