Camaro progress geared towards Darwin
Team 18 has strong record at Darwin, where Camaros are undefeated
Hidden Valley return timely for GM after Mark Skaife's "done nothing" criticism
Anton De Pasquale within reach of top four in the championship
The Chevrolet Camaro's Darwin stronghold will offer the clearest sign yet of where General Motors and Team 18 sit, with Anton De Pasquale and David Reynolds hopeful momentum will continue.
After a quiet run through Melbourne and New Zealand, De Pasquale and Reynolds burst into life in Tasmania, with the latter claiming his first solo podium for the team. De Pasquale, meanwhile, laid down his best weekend of the season so far, finishing third overall behind runaway Ford duo Broc Feeney and Matt Payne.
However, Team 18's circumspect start to 2026 has already earned the ire of Holden legend Mark Skaife, given Triple Eight has already won four races and leads both championships despite coming to grips with its Mustang.
While Team 18 is still searching for another headline result to add to its Sydney victory, there's no doubt the Charlie Schwerkolt-owned team has made strides year on year.
Through five rounds, De Pasquale is six positions and 322 points better off, with Team 18 also three positions higher in the teams' championship. Combined, De Pasquale and Reynolds have delivered 17 top 10s, compared to 11 this time last year.
Crucially, De Pasquale is 213 points clear of the Finals cut-line, versus being 45 points off the pace last season.
"The goal for us this year is to make the Finals and finish the season strongly,” De Pasquale said.
"We're in a good position in the championship, but we want to keep moving forward and hopefully that starts again in Darwin. We had really good car speed there last year and car speed is king, so hopefully we've got that again this weekend."
On the other side of the GM/Darwin narrative is Ford's hopes of breaching its final frontier in the Gen3 era. The Mustang is winless in eight attempts at Hidden Valley, with Camaros perfect on race day.
Team 18 holds the cards to keeping the Blue Oval at bay, at what is arguably its best track in Supercars. Mark Winterbottom won the team's first race in Darwin back in 2023, before claiming a podium in 2024. Last year. De Pasquale also raced to the podium.
Reynolds — who has been tipped by Supercars.com to score a breakthrough win — is hopeful Team 18 has to make few changes in order to hit the ground running in Darwin, where he won in 2015 and 2018.
"I think we're starting to get more confidence in our set-up and that was evident in Tasmania,” Reynolds said.
"Obviously, the category made a few changes to the cars, which really helped me out, but I think it's also a combination of the momentum we've built since the start of the year.
"Everything seemed to come together in Tassie and hopefully we don't have to change the car too much heading into Darwin."
Track action commences on Friday.
