The latest twist in the restructuring of GM’s Supercars program, in the wake of Triple Eight’s defection to Ford, is that Team 18 will now land the homologation team role.
In the weeks since then factors believed to include pushback from teams and the ongoing shift in overall philosophy from GM has seen a wild change of plans that will result in Team 18 getting the HT nod.
It’s understood that teams were informed last Thursday what the preference from GM is, ahead of a vote between those running Camaros that will make it official at some point in the future.
Interestingly, GM had been set to announce its new HT last Thursday morning at its Melbourne headquarters, only to last Tuesday reschedule the announcement to April 16.
How the HT role will look is not entirely clear, with talk several weeks ago of big money being on offer having cooled.
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Meanwhile it is expected that the majority of HT duties will actually be carried out by Jeromy Moore who will join GM from Triple Eight at a yet-to-be-specified date in the future.
Moore is set to take a hands-on approach to GM’s Supercars program which will take the focus off the nominated HT.
A HT is still required to be nominated, though, according to Supercars rules.
Team 18 taking on the HT role does create one fascinating clash given its cars current sport major backing from Toyota Forklifts and Hino across its two cars.
That could be something that requires resolution given the awkwardness of having other automotive manufacturers on what will be the ‘factory’ Camaros – even if in Toyota’s case it’s a seperate arm of the business.
At the same time, simply dumping that sponsorship isn’t straightforward either given Team 18 owner Charlie Schwerkolt’s primary business is closely tied to Toyota Forklifts.
Speaking of Toyota, this GM backflip has also drastically changed the hunt for the brand’s second Supercars team alongside Walkinshaw Andretti United.
Team 18 was long seen as the logical choice, while there was also a theory that PremiAir could jump ship if it missed out on the GM HT role.
However there is now a new firm favourite to switch to Supras next year – Brad Jones Racing.
The squad has ties to the Toyota program through Neil Crompton, a close friend of BJR owner Brad Jones and a driving force behind Toyota’s entry to Supercars.
If BJR does make the switch as now expected by many, it wouldn’t necessarily mean there would be six Supras on the grid next year.
A change in manufacturer could open the door for BJR to scale back from four cars to two and leave two of its current TRCs on the market.
BJR has run GM hardware since 2008 when it cut ties with Ford and switched to Commodores.
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