The Mount Waverley-based squad is currently dealing with an outage along with almost half a million other homes and businesses around Victoria.

That’s thanks to a ferocious storm that lashed the state yesterday with more than 544,000 lightning strikes and wind gusts of over 130 km/h.

The interruption to the pre-season prep work for Team 18 has been limited thanks to team’s parent company Waverley Forklifts retaining its power, allowing crew to work in the adjacent factory.

“Our foremost concern lies with those who bore the brunt of yesterday’s storm, enduring significant damage to their homes and livelihoods, as well as the emergency services who have assisted in the recovery,” said Team 18 team principal Adrian Burgess.

“It was very intense for about 20 minutes there with branches flying around everywhere and trees being pulled out of the ground. Our second factory was flooded in no time at all so our guys rushed down to protect our pit stop practice equipment. Luckily no one was injured and overall, we weren’t majorly impacted, and we could press on with our preparation.

“The crew on the ground are without power today, but we have fired up the generator from our truck to ensure necessary tasks can be completed uninterrupted.

“Our partners at Tree Clean Up Services have been working tirelessly to alleviate the storm’s aftermath across Melbourne.”

“We remain heads down as we keep our focus sharp as we gear up for the first round of the year next week.”

Team 18 will head to Mount Panorama for the season-opening Thrifty Bathurst 500 with a revised driver line-up as David Reynolds joins alongside Mark Winterbottom.