CoolDrive squad confirms key engineer signing
CoolDrive Racing has confirmed Mirko De Rosa will be race engineer for Tim Slade in the team's first Supercars campaign.
De Rosa joins Tim Blanchard's operation after a four-year stint at Erebus Motorsport, including three years as engineer for Anton de Pasquale.
Last year, De Rosa engineered De Pasquale to the driver's maiden victory at Darwin's Hidden Valley Raceway.
The Blanchard Racing Team, under the guise of CoolDrive Racing, had previously confirmed Brendan Hogan as its new team manager. Hogan shifts from Tickford Racing, where he most recently worked with James Courtney.
Slade returns to the championship on a full-time basis in 2021, having missed out on a seat last season.
He co-drove with Scott McLaughlin to fifth in last October's Bathurst 1000, driving for DJR Team Penske.
"I'm really excited to start a new chapter with CoolDrive Racing, and looking forward to achieving some good results with the team," De Rosa said.
"It's a pretty cool opportunity to have a clean sheet of paper and to be able to implement systems and procedures from the start, which will help us down the road.
"Tim and Brendan have been really accommodating and given me a lot of freedom to be able to chase some good results.
"Now we have a couple of weeks before we hit the track, and I can't wait to get stuck into it."
Blanchard said the addition of De Rosa has the team well-placed ahead of its maiden campaign.
"We are really pleased to welcome an engineer of Mirko's calibre to CoolDrive Racing, he has already been a huge asset to the team, and he's constantly improving results with Anton the last few years demonstrate his ability," Blanchard said.
"I have been really pleased the way Mirko has slotted into the team and worked closely with Tim, Brendan and the whole team as we undertake this huge project.
"Mirko coming on board completes our staffing requirements for the 2021 season and is another major piece of the puzzle completed for our new team.
"It has been a busy few months since we commenced in the beginning of November, but we are very pleased with the progress we are making, in that short timeframe we have achieved some key milestones including our workshop build, team launch and now our completed staffing list.
"We are under no illusions we still have a huge amount of work ahead of us but as long as we continue to stick to our timeline, we are confident we will start the season off on the right foot."
Slade and De Rosa will make their competitive debuts for CoolDrive Racing at the Repco Mt Panorama 500 across February 26-28. Tickets are available now.
