Holdsworth planning on re-signing with Team 18

Holdsworth, who will this weekend make his 150th V8 Supercars round start, told Fox Sports’s Inside Supercars show that has no interest in becoming part of the 2017 silly season, and has every intention of re-signing with Charlie Schwerkolt’s single-car Team 18 squad.

“After putting so much effort into the team that I’m with, the preference is to stay with those guys,” he said.

“Continuity is huge in this sport. Where I’m at the moment in my career, I need to really stay in the same car for a while.

“So the preference is to stay with Charlie. He’s been great, I’ve really enjoyed my time with him. And I’d hate to leave when things are just starting to mesh with the team.”

Holdsworth first teamed up with Schwerkolt last season, as part of a four-car Walkinshaw Racing set-up. For the 2016 season Schwerkolt and Holdsworth broke away to form a standalone Triple Eight customer team.

Whincup input a gain

Team 18 further strengthened its ties with Triple Eight last week when Jamie Whincup and engineer David Cauchi were loaned out to the satellite squad for a test day at Winton.

According to Holdsworth, having Whincup in the car and Cauchi on the spanners did give the team a boost.

“We got half-way through the test, and we said to Jamie and Cauchi ‘just take the car, half an hour, do what you would to it as if it was yours. Tune it up, and see how you go’,” Holdsworth told Inside Supercars.

“It was interesting to see the way they work, the different philosophy they had in the car.

“We learnt a lot. I jumped back in the car after they had a play with it, and it felt a little better. It was definitely a gain.”