Team 18 to become two-car outfit in 2020
Melbourne-based Supercars Championship squad Team 18 have confirmed they will expand to two cars from next season after competing on their own since 2016.
The decision to expand to two cars comes off the back of signing previous Ford poster-boy Mark Winterbottom for 2019 and being compromised by having to share a pit boom with Tekno Autosports, taking away control for the team throughout a race.
Team 18 has secured one of the two Racing Entitlement Contracts which came from Kelly Racing who are scaling back to two cars in 2020. The team have also acquired a second Triple Eight-built Holden Commodore, currently being driven by Shane van Gisbergen but set to be replaced at the factory outfit after the 2019 championship wraps up.
Winterbottom says the expansion is something which team owner Charlie Schwerkolt believes will get him back onto the top step of the podium and to fight for a title.
“Schwerkolt wants to experience that title-winning feeling again – something he was part of in 2010,” he said in the announcement.
“For or now he’s staying tight-lipped on who the second driver will be but he’s confident their formula will be right for a real shot at the championship.”
The combination of Winterbottom as the 2015 series champion and 2010 championship winning team co-owner in Schwerkolt has netted a strong season for Team 18 in 2019, the #18 entry taking a pole at Symmons Plains as well as two fourth placed finishes at the Tasmanian venue and The Bend Motorsport Park.
It has not yet been announced who will fill the second seat at the team but Schwerkolt has said he’d like to bring a junior driver aboard to start a junior program in the sport.
