TEAM 18 has celebrated a landmark occasion, running its very own Supercars for the first time.
Scott Pye and Mark Winterbottom debuted chassis T18-001 and T18-002, assembled in-house at Mount Waverley, in a shakedown today at Winton Motor Raceway.
The outing came after a last-minute delay triggered by a steering wheel gremlin yesterday, but the wait appears to have been worth it.
“I’m struggling to wipe the smile off my face,” said Pye.
“It feels like a long time coming but I’m sure for everyone, obviously there hasn’t been enough time in the day to get everything done, but everyone has done such a fantastic job to get here today.
“For us to roll out for the first time ever out of Team 18 and have a day with no mechanicals is unbelievable, really happy for everyone.
“I’m excited to head to Sydney Motorsport Park and see what everyone else has, but all in all I’m really happy with the day.
“When you go and see others testing you get itchy feet for sure, but today was proof of why we waited. We spent time and made sure everything was right on both cars and had no dramas all day is why we did it.
“Yesterday we wanted to go but there was something that Supercars introduced which caused a bit of a problem and it meant that we couldn’t get out there but postponing it to today was the perfect solution because it’s been a fantastic day all round.
“I definitely don’t feel like we’re behind, we’re in a good spot and everyone is on a level playing field we’ve all got the same equipment now.
“We’ve still got a test day up our sleeve after Sydney Motorsport Park but we’ll head up there next week and see what we’ve got.”
Both cars are said to have completed approximately 90 laps.
They’ll be back in action next Wednesday at Sydney Motorsport Park, with the entire field now having completed at least one track day.
