Spills, thrills and skills: CodeFish Racing’s comeback

The VAILO Adelaide 500 is over for another year and it did not disappoint. The Stadium Super Trucks were back after a four year absence and brought the spills and thrills with them. CodeFish Racing was front and centre to it all.

With the return of the Stadium Super Trucks and our first foray into car sponsorship, we were expecting the unexpected. What we didn’t expect, however, was that our greatest lessons would be about publicity, social media and teamwork. 

The excitement for the return of the Stadium Super Trucks was palpable. The high-flying jumps were certain to make this event EPIC. What was not on the checklist for us was the EPIC accident had by CodeFish Racing’s driver Shae Davies. 

On the first practice race, halfway through the second lap, the truck had a bit of a tumble and rolled a couple of times. Thankfully Shae was okay but the damage to the truck had everyone questioning whether we could return. Most teams may have thrown in the towel at that moment.

But the CodeFish Racing Team and all their partners rallied together to turn the setback into a comeback.

It only took a couple of hours for the team to activate a network of partners, leverage existing relationships and pull resources together to do the unthinkable. Through all those efforts, the truck was back on track for Saturday and Sunday. As the CodeFish Studio team put it, “it wasn’t just a repaired car; it was a symbol of teamwork, resilience, and shared commitment”.

With all that behind Shae, he overcame the odds, and finished third overall for the weekend. The highlight was a strong second position in the last race. With Shae behind the wheel, the CodeFish Racing Team were able to turn what could have been a weekend over before it started, into a story of overcoming the odds. 

Any publicity is good publicity, right?!

It wasn’t quite how we planned to see the Refuel logo at the VAILO Adelaide 500, but hey, any publicity is good publicity! Whilst you don’t want to be known as the truck that crashed, our story became one of determination and hard work. It showed what can happen when you band together and never give up. 

After Thursday’s accident, everyone quickly jumped into action to keep fans updated, manage the conversation and media, and share the CodeFish Racing Team’s response. This was PR and crisis management 101 at its finest.

As photos and videos from the accident started coming through on social media, we needed to act fast. We needed to make it our priority to jump on the story and ensure we were in charge of the narrative. We left comments that included our statement and began engaging with the content being posted by others.

We quickly started gathering the attention of large accounts like Adelaide 500 and Stadium Super Trucks, who started tagging CodeFish Racing in their posts, invited us to collaborate on their posts and accepted our Instagram collaboration invitations. This further expanded our reach and engagement. 

The strategy we quickly formulated allowed us to get critical information like Shae’s post-accident interview out there. It allowed us to not only address concerns but to capitalise on the unexpected media spotlight. We stayed in control of the narrative and focussed on showing the team’s resilience and determination. 

We also showed the real-time repairs of the truck and our journey to getting the truck back on track. We chose to tell the real story through pre- and post-race interviews and moments of triumph. People felt like they were a part of not only the action but the journey back. 

By collaborating with influential accounts and being active on social media, we were able to control the conversation and showcase the behind-the-scenes efforts of the CodeFish Racing Team. What we found was the fans, partners and media alike loved the content which helped drive impressive engagement across all social platforms. 

Videos of the accident amassed 1.5 million views on combined TikTok accounts and 1 million views on Instagram via Adelaide 500. The accident appeared on multiple news channels with interviews from Shae. 

Comeback of all comebacks

It was also all hands on deck to get the truck back into racing mode. With a huge amount of determination and elbow grease, the truck was patched up and back on the track for the Qualifying race on Saturday.

With speed defying laps on both Saturday and Sunday, our truck finished third overall. Not bad for a team that didn’t know if they could compete again after the first practice race. 

More than a race

The Adelaide 500 has long been more than a race in Adelaide. It’s a festival, with concerts, circuit racing, motocross, speedway, and more.

Away from the track, the team held a Pit Lane Party on Thursday night. It was a great chance for everyone to regroup after the accident during the day’s earlier practice.

Hosted by Steve Tester from Showcase SA, there was also a Q&A with driver Shae, talking through the day’s dramatic events. Spirits were lifted with some networking, drinks and a DJ. It was a very cool, unique experience to have dinner in pit lane!

Throughout the four-day event, our CEO Ryan attended a number of key events to network and meet some of SA’s heavyweights too.

Adelaide 500 takeaways

We all learned a lot from being a part of the event, having been a first time truck sponsor. Some of those takeaways included:

• Stay hydrated: OMG, Saturday morning was so hot!
• The comeback is greater than the setback: Yes, putting the truck back together (literally!) was back-breakingly, sweat-inducingly hard, but the comeback to third overall made it all worthwhile
• Teamwork makes the dream work: Watching the on and off-track teams come together to get the truck fixed plus handle the media was nothing short of miraculous
• It takes a village: We were inspired by the amount of new companies that came on board on Friday after a call-out for partners to help get the truck back up and running but it couldn’t have been done without the support of all partners:
  • JKSM Off Road
  • Pink Loans Financial
  • TxRx Technologies
  • The FC
  • Deliver It Group
  • Dent Revolution
  • Electric Environs Electrical
  • Need Trade Services
  • SKDA Moto Creative
  • Mister Sunshine’s
  • FOUR
  • Novafast Holdings
  • Solutions+
  • Plumbify
  • Foildrive
  • Williams Technology
  • Encode Talent
  • Shiels Jewellers
  • Boundless Business Services
  • Autocom Solutions

Plus, we now know what our logo looks like at warp speed, flipping over and over again… and not many people can say that!