THE boss of General Motors’ Supercars homologation team, Adrian Burgess, has hailed the manufacturer’s signing of Grant McPherson.
Burgess is at the helm of Team 18, which has vowed to fly the flag for Chevrolet and drive collaboration across its four remaining squads.
Accomplished engineer McPherson will be a core cog in that – once he finishes up at Grove Racing – bringing technical expertise to the table including to manage newly established GM alliance.
“Everybody is happy about that move apart from Grove obviously,” Burgess said on MotorRacing 360.
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Erebus Motorsport’s Barry Ryan, Team 18’s Adrian Burgess and PremiAir Racing’s Roland Dane. Pic: Ross Gibb
“It’s another clear indication that GM are invested in what we’re doing and they’re going to put the resources behind the program, not necessarily behind one team.
“We’re all trying to work together, we have got a very collaborative approach as to how we’re going about it and there’s a lot of information sharing, but having the likes of ‘Shippy’ (McPherson) and ‘JJ’ (Jeromy Moore) sat there in the background supplementing the program is only going to be a good thing for us in the long run.
“These things don’t change overnight, there’s no silver bullets, but having those guys and knowing they’re in your corner is a great thing.”
GM is also known to be in ongoing pursuit of star Grove driver Matt Payne, supposedly to place at Team 18 initially before facilitating a career move abroad.
David Reynolds would be the one to make way if that were to occur, with Burgess firm in asserting the team’s ambitions but equally clear that they need to deliver for the 2025 Bathurst 1000 runner-up.
“The proof will be in the pudding: if he’s winning races for us, then why would we want to make a change?” said Burgess.
“But if there’s a better solution out there longer term, then we have to look at it.”
Reynolds holds 12th in the standings, seven places behind teammate Anton De Pasquale.