V8 Sleuth’s Aaron Noonan runs through the key news from the Repco Supercars Championship from this week, headed by Mark Winterbottom revealing he is leaving Team 18 at the end of the season, followed shortly after by the team announcing Anton De Pasquale for 2025.
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It's PC here, mate. I saw a journalist on what's on to their phone. I'm just double checking your V8 booth night at Bathurst on the Thursday night October 10th. I'm assuming it's still 7.30 kick off at the Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Center. Gabe, you recognize only need a toilet because I only get one person there, so you better double check that. Anyway, tell me a hell of a night, buddy. You and I session for over an hour with the fans as well. Guys, anything else you want? Careful what you wish for, mate. It's going to be no hard bars. We'll have a few laughs, track a few jokes. You'll be boring. I'll be exciting. But that's okay. That's probably used to that. Anyway, oh, good mate. Look forward to it. Lots of stories, lots of bullshit. Should be a river of a night. Very good. Speak soon. A motorsport podcast network production. Well, it's official gang, Castro Supercars Weekly is here and the Supercars silly season has just stepped up a notch. I'm Aaron Unan. Great to have you with me. As we come to you today with the dominoes for 2025, they have begun to fall. So, if you haven't caught up with the news this afternoon, Mark Winterbottom is out of a drive for next year, the Team 18 driver. Confirming, he got in first before the team on social media this afternoon that he will not continue with team 18 in a full-time capacity for next year. Of course, the 2015 Supercars champ in 2013, Bathurst 1000 winner has been with Charlie Schwerkold's team since 2019 after he left Ticford Racing. His deal is up at the end of the year and it was starting to look like in the pit lane that they were looking at options for next year. Winterbottom took himself out of the conversation earlier this afternoon, revealing he has been replaced for next season. He wrote on socials to my supporters. The last 24 hours have been a whirlwind, as I was told that team 18 signed a different driver for 2025. I don't know what the future holds. I'm still digesting the news, but I know I can hold my head high as a professional sportsman. It goes on to say, "I've given 110% and loved working with the team crew and all the sponsors. You are great people. I truly value the support from my family, friends, sponsors and supporters at a time when I need it most." Now, no questions on who will replace Mark Winterbottom also announce this afternoon. Straight off the back of that, Anton D Pasquale will move from Dick Johnson Racing to Team 18, where he will be reunited with his old Arabist teammate David Reynolds. That was announced this afternoon. Anton D Pasquale, from my understanding, learnt earlier this week that he would not have a contract offer from DJR, so he's moved very quickly. I presume that the team 18 thing was floating and maybe premier, but he's gone with team 18, locked it in. He's going to be alongside David Reynolds next year. So, that now brings into play a bunch of questions and a bunch of dominoes. Is Winterbottom now potentially in the market for premier year? Does he go and become a co-driver? If so, what a co-driver to put on the market for 2025? Not many seats left, so much left to play out. So, if Deepa Squale is on the move, we're waiting for it now. Within a matter of days we'd expect Brody Kostek, he's going to be confirmed at Dick Johnson Racing at some time soon. Clearly, all of the Brody stuff is related to Erebus and what they're doing. The whole industry knows Cooper Murray is going there to replace him for next year alongside Jack LeBrock. So, you would expect all of that stuff to be linked in together. There's some chat going around the industry that we might get an announcement on that later this week out of Queensland. So, that then puts Brody at DJR. That means Will Davison is going to be at DJR. I mean, you just have to do the sums on this. If Anton's out and Brody's coming there, there's a seat there, Will Davison is going to hang on to that seat. That's what we would expect to be announced at some point down the track as well. Then, Premier Racing, where do they sit now? It would appear they've missed out on almost all of the free agents that they've tried. They've been linked to pretty much all of them, to Brody Kostek, to Will Davison, to Kai Allen, who of course is signed at Groves. They've been linked to quite a few drivers. But, let's see what they do. Does Tim Slade continue? Does James Golding continue? Does Mark Winterbottom come on the radar now with them? Let's wait and see. Richie Stanaway, remember too, is looking for a home for next year. He's been linked to Premier. So, Supercar Silly Season is off and rolling, and the dominoes will fall from here on in now that it's been confirmed that Mark Winterbottom will leave Team 18 on a full-time basis at the end of next year. He's seat taken by Anton Deepa Squally. A couple of bits of news to follow on from all of that. Not connected to driver market stuff, but testing for the Supercar Endurance races, of course, the Sanddown 500 is in the middle of September. Today, at Wynton, one of the wildcards, Matt Charter Motorsport, testing their Camaro for the first time. That's last year's Sanddown 500 winning car, the Brokphini and Jamie Winkup drove to victory. Matt Charter himself and Brad Vaughan getting their first taste at Wynton today in a somewhat stealthy black test style livery. Grove Racing in the news today, too, if you didn't see it, they've appointed a new CEO, Troy Bundy, who's been with Porsche both in North America and Australia in recent years. He spent some time with Vulcan Shores. He was a supercars way back when, spent some time in sponsorship in the AFL with the Sydney Swans and the North Melbourne Football Club as well. He's back in Australia after a couple of years with Porsche Motorsport in North America. He's the new CEO, which was Brenton Grove. He's going to become the team executive director reporting to his father, the executive chairman, Stephen Grove. So Troy Bundy in charge, a CEO now at Grove Racing, of course, David Cauchy remains the team principal with a focus really on the on track performance side of the organization. So another addition for Grove Racing based in Brayside here in our hometown of Melbourne. Some testing changes, too. So the Northern teams who are going to test at Queensland Raceway next week, not next year, next week, they've moved their test day because Campbell Little's Memorial will be on the Gold Coast on Monday, September 2 from 1.30 p.m. at Southport Church of Christ. There is a livestream of that event that will be available for those who can't attend. The link is on our website and we'll put it in the show notes. Actually, I'll get Will when he edits this app to do the deed and pop that in there so as you can easily find your way to it. So as a result, there's a range of supercars team personnel who want to pay their respects to Campbell at his memorial. So AAA, DJR, Matt Stone Racing and Premier, who were all due to test at Queensland on Monday, have now postponed that test day and they will run on Tuesday. So that's September the 3rd. So of course, Campbell had close connections at AAA. He worked there with Craig Lowndes and of course Craig is there still as a wildcard entry for this year's Great Race. So that means now that the Queensland test will be on the same day as the Southern Squad's test at Wynton also on September 3. So a bit going on in terms of testing and a couple of date swaps leading into that important running. By the way too, I'm not sure if you saw this, but the two supercars Gen 3 prototypes have been sold. Now, supercars are pretty tight-lipped on who's bought those, but we can confirm that they were for sale earlier in the year and it deals been done with a Gold Coast-based businessman who's swooped to buy both of them, the Mustang and the Camaro. The identity of that buy has been kept a closely guarded secret, but we hear the cars might get some track time if only in private settings. So, you never know if you're wandering around at Queensland or Eastway, you might see one of those cars in the future doing some laps up there. So plenty going on in the world of supercars today. There's no doubt about it, but if you've just scrolled through this episode and maybe missed the start, Mark Winterbottom is going to depart full-time driving from team 18 at the end of the year. Does he have a full-time home? Will he become an Enduro driver? The news is very fresh and raw, so we'll wait and see. What unfolds? I'm sure his phone is going to be very busy in the next couple of days. Antondi Pascuali is moving on from Dick Johnson Racing at the end of his fourth season with the team. He joined him in 2021. He will fill the seat of the number 18 Camaro in next year's REPCO Supercars Championship. So, there you have it, Castrol Supercars Weekly, giving you all the latest of what you need to know in Supercars for your drive home. Don't forget, Castrol's redger to oil, it's on the Castrol website now, where you'll instantly know the best Castrol products to unlock the edge of performance in your car. Just search for redger. The number two in oil, and you can find out more. And if you want to get more V8 Sleuth Podcast content, I've got a way for you to do that too. Become a member of the pod. Become part of our V8 Sleuth Podcast Plus family. Add free episodes, bonus episodes, your chance to vote on future content, and much, much more, get to it now. V8sleuth.supportingcast.fm. The link is in the show notes. And that, my friends, is Castrol Supercars Weekly. A little bit earlier this week than we normally do it, but enough news to justify. So, there you go. It's all happening in Supercars. Keep following the V8 Sleuth website and socials for the latest, and I'll chat with you again very soon. The National Motor Racing Museum is a must-see if you're in the central west of New South Wales. It's on the outside of Murray's Corner at the famous Mount Panorama in Bathurst, and celebrates the rich history of Australian motorsport. There's famous cars, bikes, memorabilia, so much to take in, including the spectacular immersive room. It gives you an amazing taste of the speed, the sound, and the excitement of the mountain. The museums generally open six days a week, and also during events, so visit their Facebook page or themuseum'sbathurst.com.au website for further details. details. [BLANK_AUDIO]
