Team 18's co-driver concerns easing

The Holden squad has been left a co-driver short after Golding, who was set to partner Scott Pye at the Bathurst 1000, landed a full-time seat with PremiAir Racing.

It has now embarked on the search for a replacement that includes both local and international talent.

According to team owner Schwerkolt, Golding's departure did spark some initial concerns as to whether a suitable replacement could be found.

However those concerns have now eased and Schwerkolt is now confident there is still plenty of talent on the co-driver market.

"Look, selfishly I wish I could keep Golding because he was our pick," Schwerkolt told Motorsport.com.

"But he deserves to be in the sport full-time. He's a good lad. He'll go well.

"There are better options than I thought we had. When it first got announced I thought, 'holy crap, what are we going to do?'.

"I was a bit concerned. But I'm not as concerned now. There are some good drivers in the feeder series and other categories."

Expanding on the search, Schwerkolt said the team is yet to settle on whether it will go with youth or experience.

He is also adamant the team isn't in a huge rush thanks to having what he believes is the best seat still left vacant.

The other vacancies are the two PremiAir Racing cars, Todd Hazelwood's Matt Stone Racing entry, Jack Smith's Brad Jones Racing entry and the Matt Chahda Motorsport and Anderson Motorsport wildcards – although there is a question mark over whether the latter will go ahead.

"The search is far and wide," said Schwerkolt. "We're watching Super2 races and watching Porsche races like hawks just to see what's out there.

"Do we go old? Do we go young? I'm not sure yet. It would be a great story if we go young and bring someone through. It can be a fantastic story if it all goes well.

"But inexperience, hitting a wall, all that sort of stuff... there's no lead-up enduro either. We do have one test day, but we can't get any rookie days. We can't do a rookie day and then put that driver in as a co-driver, that's the rule.

"It's going to be an interesting search. We're not in a real rush, I think we've got the best seat available by far. Scott is backing whoever we put in there, because he knows we want to get the best driver we can."

It's not just local talent that's on the radar either, with the team believed to have approached Earl Bamber, who is unavailable due a scheduling clash.

Schwerkolt confirmed that he will continue to consider overseas drivers, however his preference is now to sign someone based in Australia.

"We're looking outside of Australia, for sure," he said. "There are some good guys out there. But airfares and all that makes it more difficult, so I'm less likely to take that path now. But we'll see."

There are a number of experience co-drivers still on the market including 2017 Great Race winner Luke Youlden.

Jacobson, who lost the PremiAir drive to Golding, is another who is likely to play a part in the co-driver market.

Jayden Ojeda, who is coming off the back of a two-round wildcard programme with Walkinshaw Andretti United, it also yet to be locked down, as are Super2 front-runners Tyler Everingham and Cameron Hill.