Team 18 are set for the season opener of the Repco Supercars Championship, with DEWALT Racing’s Mark Winterbottom and TRADIE Beer Racing’s David Reynolds ready to hit the track at the Thrifty Bathurst 500 at Mount Panorama on 23-25 February.
Winterbottom will race with the #100 for the season opener, in tribute to DEWALT celebrating their centenary this year. First established in 1924, DEWALT has grown to become the world’s largest power tool company, delivering tools to meet the needs of professional tradespeople around the world.
The DEWALT 100th anniversary logo will also feature on the roof of the DEWALT Camaro and the team’s transporter, with a number of activations planned throughout the year to celebrate this significant milestone.
Winterbottom will start his sixth season with Team 18, with the 2015 Supercars Champion hungry for success after a host of off-season recruitments within the team, bolstered by new Team Principal Adrian Burgess, Technical Director Geoff Slater and Race Engineer Som Sharma, as well as a new teammate in Reynolds.
“I’m really proud to run the number 100 for the season opener at Bathurst. It’s obviously a very special occasion for DEWALT. 100 years is a great achievement and DEWALT has supported me now for quite a few years. They produce a great product and they only put their name to other great products and I hope that I can deliver on track and do them proud because 100 years is special and for me to represent them and run it is a proud moment,” said Winterbottom.
“Bring on Bathurst, we’re looking for results and hopefully this DEWALT car with 100 on it brings me luck and we get the result.
“I can’t wait to get out there. Testing went well, but it’s also the unknown because you go into Bathurst, it’s always ‘have we done enough?’, ‘where are we at?’, ‘what are our competitors doing?’, we don’t know until we hit the track, so there’s a bit of nerves. even after all these years you still get nervous, but we’re in good shape.
“I think we’ve done a great job, we’ve recruited really well, we’ve prepared really well. So we’ll find out when we hit the track. Are we good enough? Time will tell.”
For Reynolds, this will mark his first round for Team 18, having joined in the off season from Grove Racing. Following a successful test day on Wednesday February 7 at Winton, Reynolds is excited to get to the first round at Bathurst, where he will be paired by renowned race engineer Richard Hollway in the Tradie Beer Camaro.
Reynolds will return to Mount Panorama for back-to-back weekends off the back of the Bathurst 12 Hour, where he finished in eighth place as a factory driver with Mercedes AMG for GruppeM Racing.
“I’m so excited. I can’t wait to get to Bathurst and see everyone and how the team operate on a race weekend and how we perform, how the car performs and try win and be up the front and feel good about life,” said Reynolds.
“Coming off the 12 hour and bouncing back a week after you’ve got to look after yourself, so I’ve been eating well, drinking a lot of water, massaging, physiotherapy and just try and rest and recover and then we’ll turn up on Friday ready to hit it out of the park.”
The Thrifty Bathurst 500 will feature two 40 lap, 250 kilometre sprint races on the Dunlop Hard Tyre. Each race will comprise of two compulsory pit stops, with a minimum of two tyre changes and a 60 Litre minimum fuel drop.
On-track action commences on Friday with two 60 minute practice sessions. The grid will be set by a 20 minute qualifying session and a top ten shootout each day. Race 1 kicks off at 4:10pm local time on Saturday, with Race 2 starting at 3:05pm on Sunday.
Fans can catch all of the action live on Channel 7, Fox Sports and Kayo. Check your local guides for further details.