Shop
Erebus Motorsport boss Barry Ryan says Wednesday’s rookie test proved the team has harmony in its new-look engineering line-up.
The Dandenong South-based team has gone through a sizeable shake-up in recent months, both in its driver and engineering set-up.
Late last year it was confirmed Anton De Pasquale had departed to join Dick Johnson Racing while David Reynolds ended a 10-year contract just one year in to join Kelly Grove Racing.
Their respective co-drivers in last year’s Bathurst 1000, Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown, have since taken the mantle.
In the engineering ranks, Alistair McVean and Mirko De Rosa have left to join Kelly Grove Racing and the Blanchard Racing Team respectively.
Tom Moore and George Commins were named late last year as their replacements, Moore working with Brown while Commins teams up with Kostecki.
Bradley Tremain was announced late last year as the team’s new crew chief after Dennis Huijser also left to join Kelly Grove Racing.
Wednesday’s rookie test at Winton Motor Raceway gave the team its first chance to work together on track.
Ryan was encouraged by the team’s first hit-out as his rookie drivers and engineers worked together.
He said having two engineers “working together for the same cause” was something he felt had been missing within the team but was buoyed by what he saw at the test.
“Tom and Will working together and George and Brodie was really good,” said Ryan.
“You can see they already click. They know what they’re doing.
“The biggest thing was George and Tom working together on a singular plan. Not just two individual plans, they’re on a single plan of what we need to do to the cars.
“One car went through a test programme and the other car went through a test programme they both knew about. That makes a big difference. It makes you work as a team.
“After today it’s really proved we’ve got that harmony and the two engineers want to work together,” he added.
“They’re not just out there to beat each other. The drivers are the same. They obviously want to beat each other as drivers, but they’re working together.”
Between them, Brown and Kostecki completed roughly 160 laps at Winton Motor Raceway.
The team will have a second outing at the circuit come February 16 when southern-based teams take to the circuit for pre-season testing.
After the team’s first test, Ryan said he is eager to see how his drivers stack up against the field.
“The whole team planned the day really well and executed the day really well,” he said.
“It’s probably one of the most positive days I’ve had in years at Winton.
“The drivers just did their job. There was no complaining, they just got in and did the plan that the team had put together. The engineers did a great job of working together. A real team effort.
“It was just really well planned. No one stood out any more than anyone else. The crew chief did a good job, the mechanics did a good job, the engineers, drivers, everybody just did their job and there were no complaints during the day.
“It was just hard work and that hard work always pays off.”
