Anton De Pasquale triumphed in the Darwin Triple Crown finale, sharp work in the lane helping him into a lead after the first round of stops.
He then held strong throughout the race despite late pressure from Matt Payne, which had dissipated even before a late safety car that put the result beyond doubt.
It was Team 18’s third win in total, second of the current season and second as the General Motors homologation team.
The victory followed stinging criticism of both Team 18 and GM from Holden hero Skaife earlier this month.
Speaking on Fox Sports’ MotorRacing 360 show, Skaife said GM had “done nothing” since Triple Eight defected to Ford and that, “Team 18 [is] not operating like a proper, proper factory team”.
In the immediate aftermath of De Pasquale’s Darwin win, Team 18 owner Schwerkolt didn’t miss his opportunity fire back at Skaife.
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“Obviously, there’s plenty of critics out there,” he told Speedcafe.
“It’s actually a shame Mark Skaife is not here to see this win.
“I’m thrilled to bits with the team. We are a solid team, Chev’s backing us all the way, Anton did an amazing job, and our pit stops were well executed.
“You can’t make one percent of a mistake in this game and we didn’t today. We executed exactly right.
“Look… I bit my tongue a 100 times thinking about going back to Mark and saying, ‘don’t be so critical of our team’.
“It’s a lot to live up to from Triple Eight and the resources they’ve got behind them, the longevity of all their staff and all that sort of stuff.
“We’ve got a long way to go to get anywhere near them, but don’t criticise us too much.
“But this really galvanises the whole team. It really does.
“It’s a great team. As I said, the pit stops were amazing, up there is the quickest. And the strategy was good. The culture is very special and it’s great for all the sponsors and everyone involved.
“It’s a fantastic result for the team, and do you know what? There’s more to come.”
De Pasquale’s weekend capped off a solid weekend in the Top End that included a front-row start in the first race that was converted to a sixth place finish.
There was a stumble in qualifying for the Saturday race, De Pasquale starting 20th but racing through to eighth place.
David Reynolds showed signs of speed as well, running inside the Top 10 in Friday’s opener before being spun by Jack Le Brocq with four laps to go.
On Saturday he was just 17th in the race, however finished with a 10th place on Sunday.
Team 18 sits fifth in the teams’ championship standings heading to Townsville next month.
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