Team 18 dodges disaster with 'half-trashed' car

Team 18 Team Principal Adrian Burgess admits a potentially season-defining team orders non-decision crossed his mind amid tense scenes in Race 32.

Anton De Pasquale scraped into the Semi Final by the barest of margins, beating Toyota driver Ryan Wood to the final transfer position.

De Pasquale qualified after late fuel stops, ironically for the Camaros of Jarrod Hughes and Cooper Murray, promoted the #18 Cub Cadet Chevrolet up the order.

Elimination would have been the latest chastening blow for the Charlie Schwerkolt-owned team following its highly publicised last Bathurst defeat.

“Bloody hell. If wasn't grey before, I certainly am now,” Burgess told Supercars’ Equip Super Cool Down Lap podcast.

“They call it character building. I think I've got enough character already, but anyway, we're just adding to it. Look, proud of the guys. Everyone remained focused. We didn't need that on the first lap, but then it's our fault, we shouldn't have qualified down there.”

The last point made by Burgess relates to De Pasquale’s disastrous start to the day, when he qualified 21st, before sustaining damage and a puncture on lap 1, after awkward contact with fellow Finalists Jack Le Brocq and Kai Allen.

“Everyone remained focused. Anton drove the wheels off the thing,” Burgess continued.

“The car was half-trashed, half the right-hand side's missing, so we kept him focused, kept the engineers focused, and just kept our eyes on what we needed to do to get through. It was a good outcome to a hard day.”

The team opted against swinging team orders on Saturday, with David Reynolds racing to second ahead of De Pasquale in fourth. Team 18 kept Reynolds ahead, given he was closing on Matt Payne, who was carrying a time penalty. Regardless, it seemingly deprived De Pasquale of 21 additional points, which would have vastly improved his cause on Sunday.

When asked if the non-swap crossed his mind as De Pasquale was in danger on Sunday, Burgess said: “I’d be lying if that didn't cross through my mind at one point or another, but look, it's too late to worry about it.

“You've just gotta keep focus on the here and the now, but yeah, I'd thought about it, but if it were within third and fourth yesterday, for sure we would've swapped.

“But when Davey got the chance to be P2, you’ve got to take those when you get them. And it was good for him, good for the team to be back on the second step. It all worked out in the end.”

Eyebrows were raised when Chevrolet teams Erebus Motorsport and PremiAir Racing pulled Hughes and Murray in for unscheduled stops for fuel in the closing stages.

Both Hughes and Murray dropped out of the top 10, but it helped De Pasquale, who jumped Walkinshaw TWG Racing driver Wood with the positions gained. Earlier, Wood had been let past into third by teammate Chaz Mostert.

General Motors Supercars boss Simon McNamara declared suggestions of illegal team orders were wide of the mark. When asked if he echoed McNamara’s comments, Burgess replied: “100%. I believe both teams had exactly the same, I want to say, fuel spreadsheet issue. But I'm told they, both had exactly the same issue, and they both needed more fuel.

“So, I'm grateful for their mistake, but you feel for them. They were both going really well, and Hughesy was doing a cracking job.”

When asked if he could see the irony in the situation, Burgess said: “Again, I'd be lying if I said it hadn't crossed my mind, and it gives you guys something to talk about, which is not great. But we’ve got one dog in the fight for Sandown, and I think all eyes focused on going there.

“We had a strong event there last year, but that doesn't mean you're gonna this year, but we've gotta take some confidence that we got through.”