Team 18 takes in GM's worldwide motorsport push
Team 18 takes in General Motors; worldwide motorsport push
Team 18 staff visited the Charlotte Technical Center between Supercars events
Team 18 will take over from Triple Eight as factory GM team from 2026
Team 18 has gained a front row seat to General Motors' worldwide motorsport push in a fact-finding mission to the United States.
The Charlie Schwerkolt-owned team will take over from Triple Eight Race Engineering as the factory GM team from 2026.
Team 18 staff visited the Charlotte Technical Center in North Carolina between Supercars events, jetting out to the US after the Ipswich round.
Team Principal Adrian Burgess was joined by technical director Geoff Slater, performance engineer Som Sharma, and race engineers Richard Hollway and Andrew Donnelly.
The quintet also stopped by NASCAR Chevrolet teams Hendrick Motorsports, Trackhouse Racing, and Richard Childress Racing, as well as IMSA SportsCar team Action Express Racing.
“Fantastic trip to GM Technical Center in Charlotte,” Burgess said.
“Eric Warren [General Motors vice president, global motorsports competition] and his team made us really welcome the whole time we were there.
“Spent a couple of days just visiting all the departments, talking to all the people, starting to build some relationships, and just looking at all the cool things they’re doing with their global motorsport program.”
Team 18 has improved this season to get recruit Anton De Pasquale into seventh through eight rounds, with the Victorian the only 2026 Chevrolet driver currently in the top 10.
De Pasquale’s performance could be crucial in giving Team 18 a leg-up into next season, with Burgess insistent “there are no silver bullets in this game."
“The effort that they’re putting in globally now into motorsport is second to none and it was just nice and very interesting to see some of that,” Burgess added.
“That was really interesting to see how [NASCAR teams] do things as well.
“Just recently, towards the end of this week, we went and saw the Cadillac at Action Express and spent the day with Pratt and Miller and the GT3 Corvette up at Virginia International Raceway for their event this weekend.
“All in all, it’s been an amazing trip, very insightful, lots of good little nuggets to take away from it and more importantly, just meeting and greeting the people who work there at the tech center and just starting to build some relationships.
“There are no silver bullets in this game, but there’s certainly the stimulation it’s given all my engineers and myself, little areas where we can do things nicer or better. It’s been really interesting. Great trip.
“We leave tomorrow to come back to Australia and get our head down and focus on Tailem Bend and Bathurst coming up. So exciting time and very thankful to the GM family for inviting us over.”
