Team 18 appoints female engineer
Julia McGarry, Manuel Sanchez, Dennis Huijser, Richard Hollway and Mark Sylvester. Photo: Provided
TEAM 18 has announced the recruitment of Julia McGarry as its data and systems engineer ahead of an important Repco Supercars Championship campaign.
McGarry is one of the few female engineers in the paddock and has previous experience at Matt Stone Racing and Triple Eight, working at the latter as a mechanic.
She joins a core led by race engineers Richard Hollway and Manuel Sanchez, and data/performance engineer Mark Sylvester.
Hollway and Sylvester are assigned to the #20 Camaro of Scott Pye, while McGarry will work alongside Sanchez and 2015 champion Mark Winterbottom.
Besides McGarry, it’s a largely stable off-road roster for Team 18 led by owner Charlie Schwerkolt, team manager Bruin Beasley and crew chief Dennis Huijser as they try to capitalize on the Gen3 reset they’ve long targeted.
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“We hit the ground running in 2023 with some new faces around the workshop bringing a fresh energy to the team, Bruin and Dennis have put together an incredible team of people for the season ahead,” said Schwerkolt.
“Our engineering department contains a wealth of experience and talent that we feel will put us in the best position to meet the challenges that the new technical regulations have brought this year.
“We know the amount of work that has gone into getting our Camaros together has been huge so far, but I feel we are in a very good position heading into the start of the new season.”
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Team 18 has nominated February 14-15 for its shake-up/test days, ahead of the Sydney Motorsport Park all-in on February 22.
Mark Winterbottom. Photo: Provided
“This is a monumental opportunity for the team to build our cars in-house for the first time, and we are proud to announce that two of our cars will carry their own designation, with T18-001 being built by Scott and T18 -002 will be driven by Mark,” Schwerkolt continued.
“It was a team effort throughout, with everyone pitching in to bring both cars to life. It made a lot of sense for us to find out who would drive each car and that was by drawing them out of a hat in front of the whole team.
“Even now the cars have been allocated to a driver, it will not change how we prepare them to the point of hitting the track for testing and Round 1.
“Dennis and Bruin oversee every aspect of the construction together with our engineering group and mechanics on the ground and everything comes together incredibly well.
“With two great drivers in our stable, we are looking forward to hitting the track and giving it everything we have to start the year on a high.”
Tomorrow, the Blanchard Racing Team will become the first team to shake off a Gen3 race car and show its new CoolDrive Mustang at Winton Motor Speedway.
