WHAT a time for Grant McPherson’s seven-round Supercars hiatus to have ended.
‘Shippy’ is back in the paddock this weekend at The Bend in his new role with General Motors masterminding the Team Chevy alliance.
The accomplished engineer had not been sighted at an event since Albert Park in March, after which it became clear he was resigning as Grove Racing technical director to accept the GM gig.
GM, Grove/Ford and Supercars have just so happened to be at war this week regarding parity adjustments.
MORE: Grove declares Supercars parity war not over
For now, McPherson is keeping a low profile as he gets his head around how best to be of service to Team 18, Matt Stone Racing, PremiAir Racing and Erebus Motorsport as a collective.
“I was put in a pretty tough place: I had the best engineering job in the lane, and then a better one got made and offered to me,” he told V8 Sleuth.
“It took a little while to get my head around stepping out of team land after 19 years of that, but it’s an exciting challenge working with four teams instead of one, and hoping to expand my learning and options in the future with the link to the US.
“It’s different. Right now it feels odd because it’s foreign to me. We’re just trying to work out what is the best way for me to be of use, and the teams have the personnel that we have got to respect as well.
“I’m not here to step on anyone’s toes, I’m not here to cause headaches in that regard, but particularly between events it’s facilitating collaboration and providing these teams with tools as part of the Team Chevy alliance.”
As for now finding himself against Grove Racing, where he’d been such a pivotal figure through its rise, McPherson said: “I’m very proud of what we did there, and very proud of the continued success that they’ve had.
Jack Bell with Grant McPherson at Albert Park. Pic: Mark Walker
“(Ex-Grove team principal and Triple Eight recruit David) Cauchi and I, we both agreed that if it all fell over after we left, we had done a bad job.
“The intention was that we were going to create something that would outlast us. We probably didn’t think that either or both of us was going to leave quite so early, but that’s the way it played out.
“Now the benchmark has been raised – awesome. That’s a great challenge for us here to try to beat.”
Team 18 boss Adrian Burgess welcomed McPherson’s presence on the ground.
“He’s a very clever and very well-credentialed engineer that’s achieved a lot in this category,” Burgess told V8 Sleuth.
“I think everybody in the whole GM group is happy to have someone of his calibre, as we were with JJ (Jeromy Moore).
“I’m sure he’ll be a good addition. We have all just got to keep working together as we are doing and try to get the Chevys up to the front.”
Today’s 500km race will be the first instance all season that there’s been more than three Camaros inside the top 10 on the starting grid.
Grant McPherson at The Bend. Pic: Ross Gibb