Team 18 focusing on the future

Charlie Schwerkolt and his Team 18 organisation have begun preparations for the 2024 Supercars season with a fresh and positive attitude after making some personnel changes within the Mount Waverley, Victoria based team.

Being the first season of Gen3, plus the team’s maiden experience of racing without shared data in its 10-year history, 2023 has been a massive learning period for Schwerkolt’s independent squad.

It has produced its highest high with a maiden win at the Darwin Triple Crown thanks to Mark Winterbottom, but Schwerkolt also acknowledged some lows such as the recent Bathurst 1000 where some poor strategy decisions were made.

These led to both Team 18 Camaros requiring a splash and dash pit just prior to the chequered flag which trapped car #18 in the closed pit lane, resulting in a DNF and ending a strong day of racing.

Mark Winterbottom and Scott Pye roll through the Mount Panorama pits. Image: Mark Horsburgh

On the back of that disappointing result, Schwerkolt confirmed to AUTO ACTION that staff and management changes have been made within the team, but he sees them as a positive, and he is looking towards a big weekend at the Gold Coast 500.

“It has been a strong start to the year but like a lot of teams we have had a lot of ups and downs,” Schwerkolt told AUTO ACTION.

“There has been a reshuffle in the engineering line up on the DEWALT Camaro with Matt Saunders stepping up to being the engineer and team manager Bruin Beasley handed in his resignation in the past week.

“Darwin was obviously the highlight getting a win for the team, but like any elite sport you cannot make mistakes and we have made some errors at Bathurst and felt we needed to make some changes in the team.

“We have reflected on that and are changing car #18’s engineering side to regroup a little bit.

Team 18 team manager Bruin Beasley has left his role post Bathurst. Image: Mark Horsburgh

“We have an interim race manager on in Matt Saunders who engineered Jack Le Brocq at MSR to his race win at Darwin.

“He used to be at Team 18 when we had some restructuring when COVID happened so he is very familiar with everyone and is excited to get back into the fold.

“Our data engineer is swapping around with Rory (Jackermis) back on car #18 so we are very excited about moving forward.”

In addition to Beasley leaving, Race Engineer Manuel Sanchez and Data Engineer Julia McGarry are also departing.

Despite the special success at Hidden Valley, Winterbottom sits 15th in the championship having finished in the top 10 in the last three seasons at Team 18, while Scott Pye is 17th.

Schwerkolt stated the restructuring is part of a natural process of continuing to strive forward with the team on the hunt for some fresh blood next year.

Frosty took his first Supercars victory since 2016 at Darwin. Image: Mark Horsburgh

“I said this to the whole team ‘we are in really good shape at the moment with a good group of people with the right culture’,” he told AA.

“Obviously if you don’t change, nothing is going to change, which is one of my big philosophies.

“There had to be some big changes and Mark (Winterbottom) wanted some as well.

“It is sad to lose good people but you just have to move on. That happens in all elite sport because you need to look at all angles.

“We want to deliver and we will start our 2024 season of recruiting from now.”

Team 18 is also preparing for a major change in its driver line-up with Pye being replaced by David Reynolds.

The 2017 Bathurst 1000 victor has seven race wins and been on the scene since his debut in 2009.

Scott Pye driving the #20 Camaro out of the Chase. Image: Mark Horsburgh

Schwerkolt is looking forward to welcoming the fast and funny character.

“I spoke to David recently and he is very excited to come on board which is great,” the team owner said.

“David has an impressive track record and will be a great fit for the Team 18 culture.

“We are still going to be a strong team. Yes we slipped back at The Bend a bit, but we are looking at all sorts of things.”

Having previously had close associations with Ford Performance Racing, Walkinshaw Andretti United and Triple Eight Race Engineering, 2023 was always going to be a step into the unknown for Team 18 as it went alone into Gen3.

Mark Winterbottom finished sixth at the Gold Coast last year. Image: Supplied

Despite admitting it is still a learning process nailing the setups without data sharing, Schwerkolt is feeling positive of scoring strong results on the Gold Coast next weekend and beyond.

“This is the first year on our own without any support from another team like Triple Eight or when we had shared data,” he said.

“We are on our own and there will be some mistakes, so it is a learning program with all our team.

“There will be highs and lows and we just have to keep forging forward.

“We are in it for the long term, and I am feeling pretty good about the future.

“I am confident of a good result (at the Gold Coast 500). Both drivers like street circuits and the cars will be setup well so we are feeling pretty good as a team.”

In a Team 18 media release, Schwerkolt and the team thanked Beasley, McGarry and Sanchez for their contributions to the team.

Main image by Mark Horsburgh/EDGE Photographics

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