Tim Edwards to join Supercars, Burgess heads to Team 18

As has been suggested for some months, AUTO ACTION believes that Tim Edwards will be confirmed in a newly created senior role as ‘Supercars Director of Motorsport’, after the departure of Adrian Burgess was confirmed last week. Writes AUTO ACTION Publisher Bruce Williams and Senior Journalist Andrew Clarke.

Burgess in turn, is expected to join Team 18 as the team manager in a move that is generating plenty of angst among the other Supercars teams, with threats of legal action being exchanged.

Neither Supercars, Team 18, nor Edwards and Burgess would confirm the moves, but we are led to believe all negotiations are well-progressed and will be in place before the season finale at Adelaide this weekend.

Supercars CEO Shane Howard with head of motorsport Adrian Burgess and Tickford CEO Tim Edwards. Image: Mark Horsburgh

Edwards has been a target of Supercars since the announcement in September that he was leaving Tickford at the end of the season, and despite a series of soft denials from him, we believe the deal will likely be signed this week.

Edwards, who is still highly regarded at Tickford, has led the team for 19 years after a career in Formula 1 and stated the stress of the Gen3 roll-out left him and his wife Trudie looking for a reset with a ‘lap of Australia’ in a caravan.

He brings a wealth of experience in team land, and Supercars hopes his understanding of the engineering and commercial challenges of Gen3 will help quickly resolve some of the outstanding issues and provide a positive direction moving forward.

All the team principals that AUTO ACTION has spoken with, were in favour of this move.

Tim Edwards has been the face of Tickford for a long time, pictured here in the Ford Performance Racing pits in 2009. Image: Mark Horsburgh/LAT Photographic.

Supercars was already part way through a restructure of its motorsport department, which it hopes will help streamline its ability to deliver paritised cars on the track and cure the ills of the Gen3 cars.

It is unknown if Edwards will join the wind tunnel and transient dyno testing program in the States a fortnight after the final round, but Supercars insiders are expressing a desire for Edwards to be part of the program and we expect his transition into the new role to be quick.

He won’t be getting his ‘lap of Australia’ just yet.

Meanwhile, Burgess’s move to Team 18 is not without its issues. Team owner Charlie Schwerkolt worked with Burgess on the 2010 Championship-winning campaign by Dick Johnson Racing, and after some bloodletting at Team 18, following the disaster at Bathurst that saw both cars running out of fuel in the closing laps of Bathurst, Schwerkolt swooped on his old mate.

Charlie Schwerkolt and Adrian Burgess celebrate behind James Courtney winning in Winton. Image: Mark Horsburgh/LAT Photographic

The move will be controversial, with several team principals expressing concerns about the access to their data that Burgess has had in his role with Supercars.

At least two are exploring the legal avenues to block the move, but with no gardening leave or other clauses in his contract, they may not have too many rights.

As a result of all the toing and froing, Burgess is not expected to attend the Adelaide 500 event this week.

Burgess first joined Supercars ranks in 2007 with DJR, and after spells with Triple Eight, Walkinshaw and Tekno, he joined Supercars in 2018 as its Head of Motorsport, where he had oversight of the troubled Gen3 program.

Gen3 was originally intended for launch in 2022. Still, numerous issues through COVID pushed that out to 2023 with significant cost increases and budget blow-outs, much of which were related to external factors. Still, some were related to internal choices on specs and suppliers.

The bigger issues with Gen3 were related to the late approval for components. This led to a crazy off-season build program and incomplete cars debuting in Newcastle earlier this year with talk of $1m dollar and fragile race cars. Much of the fragility has been fixed step-by-step, but a lack of parity has remained an issue all season and kept Burgess in the spotlight.

A drink driving conviction in September for Burgess created further tension.

The decision to leave Supercars is believed to have been his own.

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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!