Team 18 continued strong run of form in Perth
Anton De Pasquale claimed two podiums in three starts
GM homologation team on four round podium streak
Team 18's surprise double podium performance at a noted bogey track has left team owner Charlie Schwerkolt "thrilled to bits."
Spearhead Anton De Pasquale raced to third in Races 23 and 25 in Perth, where Team 18 had a dour record prior to the weekend.
It was arguably Team 18's strongest weekend yet as General Motors' homologation team, relative to the other three GM Supercars squads. The closest Camaro to De Pasquale in the first race was Jack Le Brocq in 11th, while rookie Jayden Ojeda raced from 20th to eighth in the finale.
David Reynolds delivered a timely Shootout performance on Sunday to help him set up a top 10, just his third in the last 11 races since his Tasmania podium.
Remarkably, Reynolds had to stave off cramping in the final stint on Sunday, in eerily similar scenes to those that cost him the 2018 Bathurst 1000 win.
It was De Pasquale's podium double, though, which did the talking, keeping Team 18 on the podium for a fourth consecutive round — the first such streak for the Melbourne team.
“Thrilled to bits," Schwerkolt told Supercars' Equip Super Cool Down Lap podcast.
“Coming over here, we were hoping for one at least. We're building and building, and to get two podiums over in WA is great. We've never had one with the team before over here.
“It was one of those tracks that, critics are saying, you know, ‘You may not go so well’. Anton especially did a great job, and Dave did a great job [on Sunday].”
The challenge remains getting more Camaros to help De Pasquale, something the driver himself called upon pre-round.
"We're all a big family in the Chevs. You want to bring them all through," Schwerkolt continued.
“We are the lead Chev team. We're the HT, the factory works team-type thing there anyway, but we've got a lot to prove and look up to, and we want the others to come along on the journey with us."
De Pasquale is now an outside change to clinch his 2026 Finals berth as early as Ipswich. He his 460 points clear of the cut-line, and needs to be 600 clear after Round 9 to mathematically lock himself away.
Schwerkolt, though, is taking it one round at a time.
“Don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We've still got another round in QR,” Schwerkolt said.
“We’ve had four rounds in a row now with a podium, and so that's really important, and if we can do a fifth, wouldn't that be fantastic? But it's hard work, as you know.”
Ipswich, which doubles as the Repco Sprint Cup finale, will be held from August 21-23.
