THE Supercars era has enjoyed a healthy spread of teams colloquially known as ‘The Privateers’. 

Without them the stable 26 car grid would drop substantially.

But who runs these businesses and why do entrepreneurs and successful business operators gravitate to the most expensive form of sport in Australia?

The Race Torque spoke to two of the highest profile Supercars Team Owners to gauge their opinion on the role of the Privateer in 2018.

Preston Hire Racing’s Charlie Schwerkolt and Red 23’s Phil Munday approach the Supercars Championship in very different ways, but with a common steely purpose.

“We fit into Supercars very well and there is a place for us,’ comments Charlie Schwerkolt on the strong band of Independent single car teams in the 2018 Supercars Championship.

“It’s a hard gig to be a single car team but it is vital for the category to have Privateers and be part of the whole game. With the sport being so close now, a single car team can do well. It is great for the fans and great for the sponsors.

“We row our own boat. We are a little bit different to Tekno with Triple 888 and Red 23 with Tickford, Tim Blanchard and Matt Stone. We are completely all on our own. We do our own engineering. We do our own in house design. It’s a lot harder but we found as a customer team you don’t always quite get the same gear. So we decided to go down our own path. You can’t back to back changes you make with any other team unlike those who receive technical assistance, so there is an element of risk on any weekend.”

Schwerkolt continues: “We have around 15 full time people on the car. We run it as a professional outfit and we have some fantastic partners on the car – some global, some local. The association has done amazing things for our naming rights partner Preston Hire. It has done a world of things for their business and delivered growth.”

Phil Munday has stepped up his involvement drastically in 2018 from a primary sponsor to team owner, having taken a controlling interest in Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport and downsizing to one car.

“I think without the single car teams the series would be dominated by just few big teams,” Munday says.

“Teams like ours bring a very different flavour to the racing. It is a lot more work for us as a new team, and we are working very hard to make sure it all comes together well.

“It’s the teamwork part of it that I love.  To see the guys pull together and work together. There is nothing the guys won’t do. They multi task and with a small crew we rely on everyone to really pitch in.”

When quizzed about the technical strategy Munday employs, he explained a very different road to that of Preston Hire Racing.

“Our decision go with Tickford gear is based on not putting a lot of money back into developing things yourself. I did an engine deal with Tickford as well as engineering support and services. All the data we need to get, all the engine specs and changes they make to their cars we can tap into. I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We don’t need engine builders and all the cost that goes with it. We stick to what we do best and pay the others who do it really well and share in that.”

Both teams have optimistic, but in their minds, achievable goals in 2018.

For Red 23’s Munday it was a surprising result in Adelaide that caught the pit lane’s attention.

“We are trying to keep our goals in check. It is a brutal sport. You are a rooster one minute and a feather duster the next. I am a goal setter, I would love to get a few podiums this year. Anything above that would blow my expectations out of the water. To come out in Adelaide at our first race and qualify in the Top 10, I was pretty emotional. That was not what I expected!”

For Charlie Schwerkolt it is a similar target: “I want to be in the (Top) 10. I think it takes three years to get a single car team up to speed and this is our third year. We will get better as we go and we still have a lot to learn on the new ZB Commodore.”

When you dive into the statistics of Privateers racing in Supercars, particularly at Bathurst, the new era of quantity over quality is clearly evident.

In the Championship years when the V8 Formula replaced Group A, Privateers had their own race and ran for a Privateer Cup within the Championship, such were there numbers.

And with no restrictions or REC’s to worry about, fields were sometimes over circuit grid capacity.

And then there was Bathurst.

If we look at the 1997 Primus Bathurst 1000, of the 41 entries, only 19 finished with only 3 cars on the lead lap, some 3 laps clear of fourth place.

Fast forward to the 2017 Supercheap 1000: 20 cars finished but there were 10 cars on the lead lap covered by only 59 seconds – and only 28 entries.

The big change here was Supercars mandating a 26-car field while shuffling and repossessing some REC’s to achieve that. It also removed teams which had the passion to race at the premier level, really did not have the budget, equipment or expertise to compete.

That single move was the death knell for huge fields and teams at Bathurst and Sandown and cherry picked local events.

But the gap between the big ‘works’ and powerhouse teams has narrowed.

Tekno has won Bathurst, Erebus too.

So the passion and desire for Munday and Schwerkolt to move up to podium challengers and untimely race winners is real – they are not making up the numbers.

WORDS: Dale Rodgers
IMAGES: Supplied – Preston Hire Racing / 23 Red Racing