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Motorsport
Motorsport
Sport
Andrew van Leeuwen

Curious closure prompts DJR sponsor shuffle

Fast.co had featured on the front bumper of the DJR Mustangs since last year's season-ending Bathurst 1000.

It was still on the cars as of the Perth SuperNight earlier this month, however has been replaced by Repco signage for this weekend's Winton SuperSprint.

That's because Fast was recently shut down by controversial founder Domm Holland after reportedly spending $US10 million per month and only yielding $US600,000 in revenue in 2021.

A statement from Holland on the Fast website reads: "After making great strides on our mission of making buying and selling frictionless for everyone, we have made the difficult decision to close our doors. With that, we regret to share that we will discontinue Fast Checkout as a payment method for you to use on your favourite sellers.

"I will be forever grateful to customers all over the world who loved using Fast to shop at their favourite brands. You shared our vision for improving the customer experience for online shopping and we can’t thank you enough for putting your trust in us.

"While you’ll no longer see the Fast button at checkout, we are incredibly proud of the team we assembled and our work to democratize commerce through Fast’s one-click checkout experience.

"Sometimes trailblazers don’t make it all the way to the mountain top. But even in those situations, they pave a way that all others will follow.

"Fast has done that with bringing one-click and headless checkout into the mainstream. Buying online has been forever changed by the incredible team at Fast. The dedication, brilliance and spirit of this remarkable team is unparalleled and will forever be the legacy of Fast."

Holland, an Aussie expat who moved to San Francisco to found this latest start-up, has a colourful past that has sparked curiosity over Fast's failure.

According to reports he rose to prominence when he bought the domain http://Qant.as for $20 and started re-directing it to Virgin Australia's website to goad Qantas.

He later sold the domain for $1.3 million.

He was then founded Tow.com.au, touted as the Uber of towing, and inked an exclusive contract with Queensland Police to tow impounded vehicles.

However when the tow companies involved were left with unpaid bills, Holland ended up in a $15 million legal battle with the government, during which he threatened that bank account and drivers licence details of more than 21,000 people could be sold on the black market.

The business was ultimately liquidated in 2018.

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