Team 18 boss Adrian Burgess has clarified the current relationship between the two teams amid an upswing in form for his squad across recent rounds.
Anton De Pasquale has risen to seventh in the championship following podium finishes at both Hidden Valley and Townsville, while David Reynolds also scored a pole at the latter event.
“We’re becoming quicker at more tracks than just Darwin,” Burgess told Speedcafe. “We feel like we’re gaining some momentum, so it was a good weekend.”
The results are well timed given GM’s decision to appoint Team 18 as its new homologation squad amid the defection of Triple Eight to Ford for 2026.
Team 18 has won just one race since its inception as a standalone squad in 2016, making it a lightning rod for criticism amid GM’s need to appoint a new ‘factory’ operation.
Burgess, though, says the timing of the HT decision and Team 18’s recent improvements is largely a coincidence.
“At the moment we’re not really doing anything yet in the role as the HT, it’s only just starting to come about. What we’ve seen so far is the work the guys are putting in,” he said.
“They’re excited and proud to be appointed the HT, we know that’ll bring some other positives further down the stream, so maybe some other guys are feeding off some of that energy.
“But really, the progression this year has really just been the work we’re trying to put in and continue to do.”
That extends to the planned data sharing between 2026 GM teams – Team 18, Erebus, Matt Stone Racing and PremiAir Racing – under a new ‘Chevy Alliance’.
“That side of it hasn’t started yet. Two of the teams are in bed with T8, so we need to respect that, and they need to respect that,” Burgess clarified.
“Me and [Erebus boss] Barry [Ryan] have got a good relationship, so we talk quite often about all sorts of things.
“We’re having loose conversations to try and help each other but we’re certainly not into the T8-style, open transparency and data and all those things. We’re not into that yet.”
GM’s plan is to next year have information from all four of its teams pour into a central bucket that will be overseen by the manufacturer.
It’s a different to the current Triple Eight-controlled model, whereby customers pay the Brisbane squad and supply their data to it in exchange for access to info.
There are questions around whether teams will fully embrace the ‘Chevy Alliance’. An upcoming GM trip to the United States may only feature Team 18 due to teams having to pay their own way.
“I think all the GM teams going forwards want to be part of a collaborative approach and it’s what GM wants to help facilitate,” continued Burgess.
“I believe the other three GM teams have bought into that concept. Going forwards, only time will tell if that delivers a better outcome for GM as opposed to the current one.
“But it will be a very different setup to the GM arrangement with its customers at the moment. We’ll all be helping each other for the good of GM.”
Long-time Triple Eight chassis customer Team 18 also recently committed to adopting chassis components from Erebus, which started with a new front-clip in Reynolds’ car in Tasmania.
Discussion about this post