TEAM 18 has shown off its first Gen3 livery in confirming Hino as Scott Pye’s sponsor for Round 1 of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship.
While it’s been known for some time that the sister car of Mark Winterbottom will be underpinned by DeWalt, the covers are yet to come off the #18 Camaro.
Instead, it’s Pye’s #20 which has been unveiled first, even if the Hino arrangement only appears to be for the season-opening Newcastle 500 at this stage.
The Pye entry adopted a rolling sponsorship model last year.
“We at Team 18 are so proud to reveal the colours of our first Gen3 Chevrolet Camaro ahead of the 2023 season launch in Newcastle,” said team owner Charlie Schwerkolt.
“It’s an exciting time as we are not only racing brand-new cars, but racing two new cars that we have built in-house – it’s a testament to the entire staff at Team 18 for their hard work and efforts to get set for the new chapter of Supercars kicking off next month.
“It’s a great honour to welcome Hino as title partner on our first Gen3 livery as well as welcoming all our new and existing partners to the team this year.
“We can’t wait to see Scott hit the track in his Camaro for the first time at Newcastle.”
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The New South Wales street circuit has been a relatively happy hunting ground for Pye, with five top 10s from six starts there (all coming during his Walkinshaw Andretti United days).
“The Hino Camaro looks fantastic and I’m super excited to get behind the wheel – hopefully it’s covered in champagne pretty early in the year!” said the two-time Bathurst 1000 runner-up.
“Being in the workshop to see the car build has been really inspiring, and I’m confident we’ll arrive for testing in a really good position and be ready to rumble by Round 1 at Newcastle.
“My pre-season has been massive – I only took one week off in New Zealand, I was pretty frustrated after Adelaide last year and I turned that frustration quickly into a positive by getting back into training early.
“The bumpy nature of the Newcastle track and its kerbs puts even more emphasis on our testing program to ensure that we’re putting the car through its paces and finding any issues that arise before we get there so we can capitalise on what will be a really tough event.”
Team 18’s inaugural Gen3 shakedown will take place at Winton next Tuesday, February 14, for Winterbottom’s Camaro, with Pye hitting the track a day later.
