Team 18 has confirmed the appointment of outgoing Supercars Head of Motorsport Adrian Burgess, as its new Team Principal.
Burgess will join the Charlie Schwerkolt-owned squad effective February 1, 2024, the team has announced.
His arrival follows the resignation of Bruin Beasley, who held the title of Team Manager, following October’s Bathurst 1000.
Burgess’ own departure, revealed by Speedcafe, was confirmed by Supercars last week, after which he was quickly linked to Team 18.
The Briton has ties with Schwerkolt which date back to his introduction to working in Australian motorsport, when he was Sporting Director at Dick Johnson Racing and the forklift magnate was a co-owner of the squad.
They shared in James Courtney’s fairytale 2010 championship triumph before both departed DJR, but will now work together again.
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“It’s incredibly exciting to welcome Adrian Burgess as Team Principal commencing early next year,” said Schwerkolt.
“I’m really pleased to reunite with Adrian; our history together goes back as far as 2006 a highlight being the championship success we celebrated together in 2010.
“This appointment is a great coup for the team and Adrian will be a valuable leader with the skills and experience to bring the results we are all striving for.
“There is a massive amount to achieve at Team 18 moving forwards, and I believe Adrian will be able to take the team to a new level and best position us for greater success in the years to come.”
Burgess remarked, “We’ve achieved a lot together in the past and we both know we would like to achieve those heights again.
“I’m not underestimating the size of the task, the competition is incredibly fierce and it’s one of the most competitive championships in the world.
“Team 18 overall is in a great shape; it showed that this year in Darwin [when Mark Winterbottom delivered Team 18’s first race win].
“I’m looking forward to getting on deck, continuing their great culture and working cohesively with everyone to focus on aiming for podiums and consistent performances every weekend and ultimately get ourselves in a position where we can fight for championships; that’s the goal.”
The circumstances of Burgess’ appointment at Team 18 has caused controversy in the Supercars paddock.
His future rivals are unhappy at the fact that he is returning to a competitive environment without some period of ‘gardening leave’, despite the privileged access to all teams’ data which he has enjoyed as Supercars HoM.
While their concerns are unlikely to have been diminished significantly by his absence from this weekend’s season-ending Vailo Adelaide 500, it appears another sore point pertaining to the departure from Supercars has been headed off.
It now appears likely that Tim Edwards, who will join Supercars with the new title of ‘General Manager of Motorsport’, will travel to the United States for unprecedented wind tunnel parity testing instead of his predecessor, Burgess.
The latter, formerly a mechanic at the McLaren Formula 1 squad, is back heading up a team after stints at DJR, Triple Eight Race Engineering, Walkinshaw Racing, and Tekno Autosports.
He is not the only impending arrival at Team 18, with David Reynolds replacing Scott Pye in one of its Chevrolet Camaros.
That, too, represents a reunion considering Reynolds and Winterbottom were team-mates at Tickford Racing, which Edwards is leaving after 19 years.
Practice 1 at the Vailo Adelaide 500 starts today at 15:45 local time/16:15 AEDT.
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