Burgess on the move
By Bruce Williams
Date posted: 16 November 2023
It is believed Adrian Burgess has resigned from the role of Head of Motorsport at Supercars last week before heading off overseas as part of his hunt for a new job.
As broken on AUTO ACTION Rev Limiter podcast on Wednesday morning, Burgess’ tenure with Supercars has been mired in controversy, with the troubled Gen3 program coming under his guidance and a recent drink-driving charge creating tensions.
Burgess is believed to have a fall-back option with a Melbourne-based team should nothing come off in Europe, although at least one team owner said he would fight that option given Burgess’ access to team data during his time at the helm.
Supercars is believed to be chasing departing Tickford boss Tim Edwards, who remains adamant he will do a ‘lap of Australia’ with wife Trudie and a caravan.
Burgess’s time in Supercars began in 2007 after working at McLaren, Jordan and Midland in Formula One. He started at Dick Johnson Racing when it was part-owned by Charlie Schwerkolt and oversaw James Courtney’s championship win in 2010 before departing when DJR was split into two.
He then worked for Triple Eight, Walkinshaw Racing and Tekno before joining Supercars in 2018 as its Head of Motorsport.
One of his key tasks at Supercars was designing and developing the Gen3 race cars, which has created tensions within the Supercars community, with reliability and parity issues afflicting the new racers, along with an extraordinarily high build cost.
There was also a massive budget overrun due in part to the development program being extended through the COVID period and the rising costs of materials during that phase. The cars were also delayed, which placed pressure on the teams to complete their builds before the start of the season.
If that wasn’t enough, he was caught in a hearsay storm at the start of the season when Triple Eight Racing Engineering claimed he gave them verbal approval for a modification before he denied that claim, as the team’s two cars were disqualified from the opening round.
He was tied up in a legal storm in the lead-in to Bathurst after appearing in court on drink-driving charges, which he failed to inform Supercars about in the lead-up.
While Supercars leadership was upset, it confirmed that Burgess had not been stood down and issued the following statement:
“Supercars is aware that Adrian Burgess has appeared in Southport Magistrates Court due to an incident involving driving under the influence of alcohol.
“Adrian has been addressing the matter and has provided remorsefulness, transparency, and honesty since the incident.
“Supercars continues to work with Adrian in regard to this matter.”
AUTO ACTION believes Burgess will remain in his role until after the wind tunnel and transient dyno testing of the new cars in the States.
Image: Mark Horsburgh
On this week’s Auto Action RevLimiter, we ramble on about Supercars. Why the finances don’t need a boost! What’s wrong with the calendar! Plus more!
Listen to our latest episode on your podcast app of choice or here
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