GM is re-establishing a local motorsport arm in the wake of January’s news that Triple Eight will defect to Ford next season.
While Charlie Schwerkolt’s Team 18 was recently named as GM’s new homologation squad, a revised strategy has GM taking a direct role in the racing effort.
Speedcafe has learned that McNamara will take on the position of Supercars program manager for GM, based out of GMSV’s Melbourne offices.
That follows the recruitment of Triple Eight technical director Jeromy Moore to lead the engineering side of the operation.
The return of McNamara delivers on GM’s promise that it will fight to remain a Supercars powerhouse amid Triple Eight’s Ford switch and the arrival of Toyota.
McNamara led Holden Motorsport during a glory period from the mid-2000s to 2017, when the in-house arm was largely dismantled.
He’d spent a total of 22 years at Holden, working his way through promotion and brand roles to join the motorsport department under the legendary John Stevenson.
McNamara secured Triple Eight from Ford ahead of 2010 and kept the Lion in Supercars into the Gen2 era through a deal that handed factory status to the Brisbane team.
A hallmark of McNamara’s Holden tenure was keeping the Holden teams largely united, which is currently one of GM’s major objectives in the wake of the Triple Eight bombshell.
GM chiefs have outlined plans for its Supercars squads to share data and set-up information as part of its unified approach.
The GM Supercars outpost will also be able to tap directly into GM Racing’s US resources.
McNamara’s appointment is understood to have been made by US GM bosses, who hold him in high regard for his work with Holden.
Since parting ways with Holden in 2017, McNamara has held roles at the Western Bulldogs AFL club, sports management group DSEG and business management firm Solutionswon.
While Moore’s start date with GM is uncertain amid contractual wrangling with Triple Eight, McNamara is expected to take up his new role as soon as next week.
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