Team 18 manager Adrian Burgess has admitted that the squad's decision against swapping positions during Saturday's race was a massive gamble that nearly backfired. The controversial strategy involved their drivers, with David Reynolds running ahead of finals contender Anton De Pasquale. The team opted to hold station on the track knowing Reynolds would be officially classified second once Matt Payne served a five-second time penalty.
While that Saturday call secured third and fourth on the road, Sunday brought nerve-wracking drama that tested the entire crew's resolve. De Pasquale endured a disastrous Sunday opener, narrowly clinging to the final cutoff spot in the standings ahead of Toyota charger Ryan Wood. The tense moments forced Burgess to reflect heavily on the non-call made the previous day.
"It did venture through my head a few times; would we be eating humble pie at the end of this race that we didn’t change the order yesterday? Yes, I’m not going to lie there. I did think it," Burgess told Speedcafe. Those worries were entirely justified, especially after De Pasquale slumped to a lowly 22nd in qualifying and suffered a race-start clash with Grove Racing driver Kai Allen, puncturing his right-rear tyre.
That early contact threatened to reopen old wounds for Team 18, arriving just two weeks after they lost the prestigious Bathurst 1000 due to running out of fuel on the final lap. "It was just living your worst nightmares again. When you see the tyre ripping the guard apart, you think it’s all over," Burgess recalled. However, thanks to the resilience of the engineering and pit crew, the car was quickly patched up and managed to rejoin the race right in front of the Safety Car.
De Pasquale's dramatic progression was ultimately sealed when two rival Chevrolet entries pitted late for an emergency splash of fuel. Addressing accusations of manufacturer collusion, GM motorsport boss Simon McNamara firmly denied any manipulation claims. Burgess reiterated that while GM operates an open-book data sharing alliance for setup information among homologation squads, no pre-race team orders or artificial assistance agreements were ever established.
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