Pye ‘in no rush’ to make 2022 plans public
Team 18 boss Charlie Schwerkolt isn’t ruling out having to re-sign driver Scott Pye via video call amid COVID-imposed restrictions.
Ongoing COVID restrictions and state border closures have prevented the pair completing a new deal in person.
Schwerkolt is currently in Queensland, with Pye in lockdown in Victoria.
Pye’s two-year-deal is set to expire at the end of the 2021 season.
While he would prefer a face-to-face meeting to discuss his future, Pye was happy to remain with the team.
“I’m in no rush to make anything public,” Pye told Supercars.com.
“But I’m really happy where I am sitting, I’m loving my time in Charlie’s team, I don’t see myself going anywhere.
“I’m loving the opportunities he is giving us and the crew I am working with.
“It’s not something really I’ve focused on, and to date, the conversations I’ve had with Charlie have been fairly short and we are both happy.
“I love to sit in front of someone and discuss these things, Charlie is pretty an inspiring boss and is someone who makes the crew dig deep every day of the week.
“I would just love to be sitting in front of the guy when we do a deal, I’m not the kind of person that does anything over the phone and I know Charlie’s not as well.
“We’re in no rush though, we are both really happy, I think, I can say that I am.
“We’ll have something sorted soon hopefully.”
Pye is in his second year with the Mount Waverley-based team and scored the team’s first podium at Hidden Valley in 2020.
The Adelaide-born driver recorded a season-best result of sixth at the last-start WD-40 Townsville SuperSprint.
It came after the Team 18 driver recorded lowly finishes of 23rd and 21st in the first Townsville event, seeing him dip to 16th in the standings.
Pye has recorded eight top 10 finishes in 2021 and has battled with one-lap pace this season.
Schwerkolt admitted negotiating online might be their only option due to the prolonged restrictions, with Pye set to compete in the Cash Converters Supercars Eseries.
Team 18 released Gen3 renders earlier this month
“It all depends how he goes on the Eseries, I think that could the future the way we are going,” Schwerkolt joked.
“We will see how he goes in the next couple of Eseries races, if he snags a podium there, he’s in with a good shot.
“In all seriousness, we are keen, we are talking to Scott and it’s all looking good at the moment.
“I’m still up in Queensland at the moment, I haven’t been back to Melbourne in six weeks the longest time I’ve ever been away from Melbourne so I’m busting to get down there.
“But it’s going to be a while until I get down there, I think. Scott and I talk via Zoom every couple of days but it’s frustrating.
I’m doing everything else via zoom so it’s no big deal to do a driver signing via Zoom.”
Pye will resume his 2021 campaign at Winton Motor Raceway across October 2-3.
