Team 18 signs renowned GRM engineer

Hollway will take up the Head of Engineering role at the two-car Holden squad, off the back of a 10-year stint at GRM.

Before that he worked at the Holden Racing Team during the golden run of five straight titles between 1998 and 2002.

Hollway will head the Team 18 engineering group, as another former GRM recruit Manuel Sanchez continues as Mark Winterbottom's race engineer and Phil Keed continues as Scott Pye's race engineer.

The move will mark a return to Supercars for Hollway, after GRM walked away from the series at the end of 2019.

“With COVID I’ve basically had a year off from racing, but we went up to Bathurst for the GRM wildcard entry and it was there I realised I still loved the Supercars and thought it would be great to get back into it,” said Hollway.

“I started to have a look around after Bathurst. I actually spoke to [team owner] Charlie [Schwerkolt] last year and we were close to doing something then, and I regretted not doing it. But I spoke to him again and it all came together this time.

“It’s a good model that the team is running as a Triple Eight customer with engineering support, and one of the key factors for me was their performance this year, they’ve done an awesome job and really stepped up.

"So I’m looking forward to bolstering the engineering department and contributing to their efforts next year."

Schwerkolt explained that Hollway will add extra firepower at the team's Melbourne base, given former engineering leader Keed is based up in Queensland.

"It’s fantastic to have Richard Hollway come on board as our head of engineering, it’s a great coup for the team to have an addition with his record in the sport,” said Schwerkolt.

“To build Team 18 I want the best drivers and the best people I can recruit in their role. Richard is a strong addition and a natural fit to our team’s culture.

“Scott and Phil have built a great relationship and gelled really well, so we don’t want to upset that. But while he is based in Queensland it made sense to get another person on the ground at Mount Waverley to oversee both cars and increase our engineering capacity.

“To finish 2020 as the fifth best team in pitlane in our first year as a two-car team is something I’m very proud of, but we have to keep improving and we have built the foundations to do that."