Team 18 has pulled off a major signing coup, securing 2010 Supercars Champion James Courtney as a co-driver for 2026 and beyond following his final season as a full-time driver in 2025.

Courtney needs no introduction as one of the most popular and accomplished drivers in the paddock since making his main-game Supercars debut in 2006. Over nearly two decades, he has amassed 15 race wins, 10 pole positions and 66 podiums, highlighted by his crowning achievement as the 2010 Supercars Champion.

The signing marks a reunion between Courtney, Team Owner Charlie Schwerkolt and Team Principal Adrian Burgess, who together celebrated the 2010 title.

The announcement was made alongside a video featuring Courtney revisiting his championship-winning car, now owned by Schwerkolt, before revealing his next ride, a Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro, symbolising a full-circle moment in his storied Supercars career which began as an endurance co-driver at the Holden Racing Team.

Courtney’s arrival cements Team 18 as a powerhouse outfit with one of the most star-studded endurance rosters on the 2026 grid. He joins 2021 Bathurst winner Lee Holdsworth alongside main-game stars Anton De Pasquale and David Reynolds, forming a four-driver line-up brimming with talent and experience. The combination sets up a tantalising decision for next year’s enduros, whether Courtney or Holdsworth will pair with De Pasquale or Reynolds, with the latter duo already scoring a Bathurst podium together this year.

Team 18 hits the track next weekend for the Sandown 500, 14-16 November, the penultimate round of the 2025 Repco Supercars Championship.

QUOTES

Charlie Schwerkolt – Team Owner, Team 18

“It’s really special to welcome James into the Team 18 family. This is a massive signing for Team 18, a real coup.

“James is a proven champion and one of the sport’s most respected and recognisable names, and there was no shortage of interest in his signature once he announced his retirement. It took a lot of convincing, but we made it clear from the start how much we wanted him.

“Securing someone of his calibre shows our intent as a team and where we want to go, we’re here to win races and to proudly represent Chevrolet as the homologation partner moving forward. It’s our job to prepare a package that can go out there and get the job done.

“To reunite with James after the success we shared in 2010 is something really special. We’ve stayed great friends since that championship year, and to now have him join what we’ve built at Team 18 for the next chapter of his career feels like things have come full circle.

“Now comes the fun part, deciding who he goes with! Between James and Lee as our co-drivers, and Anton and Dave as our main drivers, we’ve got one of the strongest four-driver line-ups in pit lane to take on the Great Race next year.”

James Courtney – 2026 Team 18 Endurance Co-Driver

“I’m pretty excited to be working with Adrian [Burgess] again. I’ve had a huge amount of success with him, we first met and worked together in the 2000s in Europe, so to be back working with him is really special. We’ve been together on and off at HRT, at DJR, and back in Europe. Not only do I respect him for all his achievements, but he’s also a good mate.

“I’m super excited to be working with him, and then also with Charlie, given our history together winning the championship. Charlie’s been a boss before, but also a really good mate for a long time.

“What they’ve done with the growth at Team 18 is fantastic, and now being the homologation team for General Motors is also very inviting for me. I started my Supercars career as an endurance driver for the GM factory team, so it’s quite fitting that I’ll finish my career doing the same.

“To be honest, as soon as I announced I wasn’t going to be driving full-time anymore, Charlie called me straight away. That eagerness showed that he really wanted it, and that the team wanted me to be part of it all. It was a pretty cool feeling to still be wanted after twenty-odd years. It’s been really nice.

“Nothing really felt different until probably the Gold Coast when we did that Sunday presentation before the race. That’s when it struck home that this is all coming to an end. The last couple of rounds will probably get more emotional. It’s been twenty years doing this full-time, from 2006 to 2025, a long period of time. I should have quite a bit of long-service leave! To change direction after that is a big shift. I talked a big game initially, saying I’d just mic-drop it and disappear, but realistically, there’s no way I could do that. I love what I do too much. To have done something your whole life and then stop cold turkey, it probably would’ve killed me.

“I’m really excited to work with Lee again. We were together at HRT when he was in the other car Charlie owned at the time, and we started around the same era, so it’ll be great to team up again. Davey’s been around a long time too, he’s a bit of a joker and we’re both pretty light-hearted and easygoing, so that’ll be fun. Anton’s super quick and continuing to make his mark in the sport. I think it’s going to be a good mix, a lot of experience on my side and plenty I can bring to help those boys as well.”