Team 18 wanting more after Winterbottom podium

Team 18 is determined to carry on its strong momentum so far this year after Mark Winterbottom secured an impressive second in Melbourne.

At both Bathurst and Albert Park, both Team 18 Camaros of Winterbottom and new recruit David Reynolds have displayed impressive race pace.

For car #18 the key was to execute in qualifying having started 19th, 21st and 20th but finished 12th, 14th and 11th respectively across the first three races of the year.

“Frosty” had fired up 23 positions across the first three races and that trend continued in race 4 when he produced a “tapped” lap in qualifying. 

Starting fourth, Winterbottom was able to race his way past the likes of Cam Waters and Matt Payne in the early stages to put him on track for a podium.

Then a late race mistake from Broc Feeney secured second for the 42-year-old who used up all of his experience to expertly manage his tyres and secure a first podium at Albert Park since he won four out of four in 2015.

In a season where Triple Eight has won all four races, finishing second best is certianly an achievement, especially for a small outfit like Team 18.

Winterbottom said a significant part of the strong result was a renewed sense of confidence that has been discovered since the arrival of a new engineering line up fronted by team principal Adrian Burgess, technical director Dr Geoffrey Slater and #18 race engineer Som Sharma.

“It is an awesome reward for the team because a lot of work has gone into the start of this season,” Winterbottom told AUTO ACTION.

“Even in between rounds after Bathurst I had really good race pace but qualified terribly, so we had the pace and knew if we could qualify well a good result was possible.

“It is so nice because last year I felt that if we qualified well, I was still always vulnerable because we were out of sequence.

“Here last year I qualified fifth and felt I was almost a roadblock (finished ninth) but today I rocked out with my chest out because I had my confidence back.

“The biggest thing is we understand why we are going bad.

“Som is very data driven and my feedback and his data is correlating really well and we are making changes and they are working.”

Burgess was thrilled to get a trophy in just his second round at the team and credited the connection between the entire team.

“It is good for everybody, not just myself and great to see the whole team working so well, so early,” he told AUTO ACTION.

“We have all known each other a long time which brings that familiarity and we talk the same language.

“But let’s not underestimate the job the team did before this year. We have two very good cars and drivers and a great group of people.

“This is the level we want to be at, so we have to keep our heads down to keep the team going further forward.”

For the man behind the team Schwerkolt, it was a sweet reward for the risks he took reshuffling the team since the 2023 Bathurst 1000.

“It has been a full rebuild of the team over the Christmas period,” he said.

“I am really proud of Frosty to get up there and drive so well and not fry his tyres to get second.

“It is all about people, the engineering team and leadership.

“I don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves but if you put the right structure in place, with the right people and culture, you can get results.

“This is the hardest gig in the world so we have just got to be consistent.

“It has been like starting all over ahead so we need to keep learning our cars and ourselves.”

Images: Mark Horsburgh EDGE Photographics

Supercars Australian Grand Prix schedule

Thursday, March 21

Practice 1: 1: M. Jones 2: M. Payne 3: C. Waters

Practice 2: 1 B. Feeney 2: C. Waters 3: A. De Pasquale

Qualifying R3 Qualifying R4 Poles B. Feeney, C. Waters

Race 3: 1: B. Feeney 2: W. Brown 3: M. Payne

Friday, March 22

Race 4 (20 laps): 1: W. Brown 2: M. Winterbottom 3: M. Payne

Saturday, March 23

Qualifying R5: 09.00-09.15

Qualifying R6: 09.25-09.40

Race 5 (14 laps): 17.35-18.10

Sunday, March 24

Race 6 (14 laps): 10.20-10.55

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