WHAT'S NEXT FOR CHARLIE AND ADRIAN
In Formula 1, there is a fierce battle between teams they call the ‘midfield.’ They strive to grab a podium, a pole position and on their day of days, a win.
So too in Supercars, where the pecking order is invariably led by Triple Eight, the benchmark in Supercars racing. Then you have Tickford, Walkinshaw Andretti United, DJR – on its day – and the two unpredictable outfits, Erebus and Grove Racing.
There are only 11 teams that contest the full Repco Supercars Championship, leaving aside wildcard appearances, and the last two years has shown the teams battle from sixth to tenth is intense – much like Formula 1.
Team 18, Brad Jones Racing, Matt Stone Racing and PremiAir Racing all covet the success that brings them into the sphere of the top teams and, much as Erebus achieved in 2023, all believe it is possible. And why shouldn’t they?
After an acrimonious split with Dick Johnson Racing and leaving with the 2010 Supercars Championship on his resume and a Ford Falcon as a trophy, Charlie Schwerkolt wasted no time in returning to the grid, initially using his racing entitlement with a customer team.
Schwerkolt joined Ford Performance Racing in 2013, and then Walkinshaw Racing, before establishing Team 18 as a standalone operation in 2016 at the former base of Tasman Motorsport at Dandenong in Melbourne.
The team has grown year-on-year and recorded its first and only win – to date – at the 2024 Darwin round, when Mark Winterbottom greeted the chequered flag to an ecstatic reception from Schwerkolt and his team.
Prior to the start of the 2025 Supercars Championship, the team unveiled a brand-new headquarters in Melbourne’s Mount Waverley, just a stone’s throw from Schwerkolt’s hugely successful Waverley Fork Lifts business.
The last few years has seen drivers including Scott Pye and Mark Winterbottom depart the team, and a driver change again in 2025 sees ex-DJR pilot Anton De Pasquale team up with the likeable David Reynolds. Both are proven race winners and Reynolds also has a Bathurst 1000 trophy.
But there has also been big staff changes in the last 18 months, none more so than the appointment of Adrian Burgess in 2024 as the team principal, renewing a relationship with Schwerkolt dating back to 2010 when they won the Supercars championship at DJR in the #18 Jim Beam Falcon driven by James Courtney. Thie winning car and trophies from that year take pride of place in the new Team 18 HQ.
Adrian Burgess spoke to Race.News with his usual forthright and no-bullshit approach about last year and the season ahead.
“We don’t go racing to end up where we did last year,” Burgess began.
“We didn’t have a good enough car. And we didn’t always use the car we had to our best efforts. If you look at Tassie, Dave (Reynolds) was very quick, he was third on the grid I think, we made a mistake with the shift which stopped us from being on pole. Then, while running fourth, Brodie took us out,” he added.
This was a pattern at so many races where the results that should have been there to grab were lost either through race or pitstop errors, or poor qualifying.
“Fast track to Bathurst. A quick car. A big crash and the weekend is nearly over before it has begun,” Burgess recalled.
“There were too many weekends where we didn’t deliver on the potential and too many weekends where the cars were simply not quick enough,” he said
And so, to 2025.
“Once you have the right people you might not get them in exactly the right role first-up. It takes time. This year we have restructured and expanded our engineering group," Burgess said.
"This year I think we will see a step forward. There is a good buzz in the team, the people we have recruited are fitting in very well and we bought in some good talent."
The most visible part of any race team, however, is the driver behind the wheel. That is the public face of the team and Team 18 have a fresh line up for the second year running.
After four seasons at Dick Johnson Racing, Anton De Pasquale has joined the team. He was one of many drivers in the annual game of musical chairs, but his focus was on Team 18.
He enters his eighth full time year in Supercars with nine wins and 32 podiums on his resume, but only a best overall result of fourth in the Championship.
“From the first chat I had with Charlie and Adrian it felt really comfortable straight away,” De Pasquale told Race.news.
“On top of that, when you look deeper the team has been building some good momentum. I could see towards the end of last year how fast Davey was, so I think this is going to be an exciting place to be.”
Looking back on his time at DJR, De Pasquale felt they had been on a roller coaster for a couple of years and admitted that his discussions with Will Davison post-race on many occasions was around that topic.
“You roll out and you don’t know where you are going to be. Then you race and you still don’t know where you will be,” was his tough assessment.
“We still got some really good results, but there are some cool things I was really able to tick off and I have great memories from there."
With a new team and a brand-new Camaro at his disposal, De Pasquale is looking at the new championship points structure with interest.
“This year is an interestong one to talk about because you have The Finals, so championship position at certain points is not so significant.
"But for me, and we always say this, we want to be fighting for the trophies on any weekend. And then get to The Finals and give it a red-hot crack,” he said.
Burgess knows the midfield will be a tough place again in 2025 but, based on the changes for the coming contest, the focus is on improving the performance at every track for every race.