Anton De Pasquale will contest the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship next year after signing a multi-year deal with Erebus Motorsport.
The highly-rated Dunlop Super2 Series young gun will take over the #99 entry vacated by Dale Wood at the Melbourne team.
De Pasquale was tipped to replace Wood with the announcement arriving just days after the team confirmed the latter’s departure.
The 22-year-old impressed the Bathurst 1000 winning team during a evaluation day at Winton in August.
De Pasquale has turned heads since returning to Australia in 2016 after racing in Formula Renault 1.6 and 2.0 series in Europe.
This season he is sitting fourth in the Dunlop Super2 Series standings with a round remaining, after recording two victories and a further four podiums in his second campaign driving for Paul Morris Motorsport.
“It’s a dream come true and I’m very lucky to get this opportunity, so I will take it with two hands,” said De Pasquale, who will join David Reynolds at the two-car operation.
“I’m very excited to be joining Erebus on a multi-year deal, I really enjoyed my first taste with the team at the Evaluation Day and they have a lot of potential still to come.
“I’ve already worked with the team so I’m not going in blind, I have a good idea of who everyone is and also what they expect out of me.
“There will be a jump from Super2 and an element of the unknown but you get that when you step up in anything you do.
“I believe with the right crew around me and especially having David as my team-mate, I have the best opportunity to learn as quick as possible and keep moving forward.”
Erebus Motorsport team manager Barry Ryan believes De Pasquale will prove to be a valuable acquisition alongside the experienced Reynolds.
“We are delighted to have secured Anton, his local and European championship winning experience along with his raw speed and natural talent is exactly what we need to complement David and our team,” said Ryan.
“Our plan has always been to develop a team that grows and wins together and we are excited to bring more fresh talent into Erebus and Supercars.”
The team’s head of engineering Alistair McVean says the new recruit is a future Supercars star in the making.
“He is clearly a talented driver and what we have experienced with Anton so far has been very impressive,” said McVean.
“His feedback was clear, concise and accurate, and most of all he was fast and mistake free.
“We were impressed by his ability to push Dave to the point where Dave had to stretch himself to go another level to go faster; it was clear from this point on that Anton was a star of the future.”
It is anticipated that De Pasquale will jump behind the wheel of an Erebus Motorsport ZB Commodore during a team test day in February.
While Erebus has locked in its 2018 line up, Prodrive Racing Australia, Garry Rogers Motorsport, Brad Jones Racing, Nissan Motorsport, Tekno Autosports and Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport are yet to confirm their rosters.
James Golding has been tipped to take over the seat currently held by James Moffat at GRM, while Brad Jones Racing is expected to retain its current line-up.
Dunlop Super2 Series driver Jack Le Brocq has been linked to Nissan Motorsport and Tekno Autosports.
The identity of Prodrive’s fourth entry remains unclear amid suggestions that it is angling to promote Richie Stanaway to a main game drive.
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