{"id":370462,"date":"2025-12-25T06:58:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T06:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/370462\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T06:58:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T06:58:25","slug":"team-18s-first-simple-target-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/370462\/","title":{"rendered":"Team 18\u2019s first simple target for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

EVEN before season 2025 had finished, Team 18 had outlined its first objective for next season.<\/p>\n

To, as General Motors\u2019 new homologation team, be the manufacturer\u2019s leading representative.<\/p>\n

Which to be fair is not always a given, as evidenced the past few years on the Ford side of the fence with Dick Johnson<\/a> Racing.<\/p>\n

In replacing DJR as Ford\u2019s HT, Triple Eight opened up a vacancy for the GM gig. It initially appeared that would go to PremiAir Racing before Team 18 edged ahead.<\/p>\n

From that moment, announced in April, it was all up for Charlie Schwerkolt\u2019s squad, which went on to capture four podiums (including one in the Bathurst 1000), a pole position, and a finals berth.<\/p>\n

It wound a respectable fifth in the teams\u2019 championship, albeit with the knowledge that there\u2019ll be increased scrutiny going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have got to step up obviously as the Chev homologation team for next year,\u201d Schwerkolt said in November.<\/p>\n

\"\"Charlie Schwerkolt. Pic: Mark Walker<\/p>\n

And that starts with flying the GM flag best of all, while still collaborating to a degree with Camaro allies Matt Stone Racing, Erebus Motorsport and PremiAir Racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are, I think, a proven team but we still have a long way to go,\u201d said Schwerkolt.<\/p>\n

\u201cDave (Reynolds) has got to get up there a little bit more, we have got to help him get up there for next year, but all the ingredients are there.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said before, it\u2019s going to be a big challenge getting up to where (Triple Eight) are and be the lead GM team, which we should be and hopefully are.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s certainly moving in the right direction, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EVEN before season 2025 had finished, Team 18 had outlined its first objective for next season. To, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-370462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}