Team 18 Racing expands technology partnership with D2N – Technology Solutions

Team 18 Racing, founded as Charlie Schwerkolt’s lifelong vision to build a championship-winning race team has gone from strength to strength. One of the critical factors in their success has been their technology partnership with and cutting-edge comms solution from D2N Technology Solutions – both of which they have significantly developed and expanded upon recently.

D2N Technology Solutions MD Jason Owen explained, “Our relationship with Team 18 Racing goes back many years. Initially we created a cutting-edge custom comms solution for them and every year since we have increased the quality of the solution up by adding more infrastructure and improving gain settings especially with the different types of headset profiles and user requirements. The technology in the cars themselves has also continuously improved.”

The latest D2N comms solution for Team 18 was borne out of a conversation between team principal Adrian Burgess and Owen after a period of intense racing.

Burgess said, “Our team operates across two cars, with 15 to 16 people communicating across various channels, including an overall channel that connects everyone. Managing this complexity is no small feat, but D2N’s systems ensure everything runs seamlessly. Their experience and expertise allow us to stay focused on performance.”

Owen continued, “Adrian and I had worked together during his tenure at previous teams and then throughout his tenure as Head of Motorsport for Supercars. As a person who expects the best out of everything the team uses, there were some crucial gaps in the radio and intercom package that we had been encouraging them to resolve for some time. With Adrian on board, the momentum to resolve those gaps was instant so we got to work and can up with an even better solution.”

Car racing is a high-pressure sport that, according to Owen, works in an environment where you can generally tell how a team is feeling about the comms based on two things – the number of times that they call for help and the tone of those calls.

He continued, “Team 18 have gone through a few different data and radio engineers during our time together so every year or so we need to train up a new person on the specifics of our custom Riedel and Kenwood comms package. One of the positives in this situation is that all of these guys are inherently smart simply because of what they do with the cars so, even though you might be starting with someone who has never programmed a radio, their eagerness to learn and perform at a high level means they catchup quickly. As a result of the quality of the crew and the new comms solution, after one round of tuning over 90% of the calls now are about finessing and features. As a technology partner this is exactly where we want to be performance-wise.”

Burgess added, “Radio communication is vital for our race engineers and the entire team. We need to communicate with the car, receive commands from race control, and relay critical information to the crew. Whether it’s weather updates, lap times, or strategy adjustments, everything we do during a race depends on clear and concise communication. That’s where D2N’s expertise makes a real difference.”

For Team 18 and the new D2N comms solution a typical two-way signal path includes Car to Pit via the race car radio and repeater network and the Pit Garage interface radio via the Riedel Bolero interface and Bolero pack.

Owen added, “It is the pit garage interface radio and Riedel interface where most of your quality can be won or lost. Gain structure, quality cabling and a thorough understanding on how the Kenwood interface radios work is paramount. As we have refined and achieved these elements it has raised Team 18 to the highest tier one level in terms of their comms package. As Frosty (Mark Winterbottom) says in the video they produced about our partnership, “you can win a race with a radio but you can also lose one.”

Team 18 have publicly stated that their D2N comms solution has clearly set the bar for every other team to meet.

Owen added, “Car racing is a very unforgiving sport so I won’t budge on the quality or brands offered to ensure teams are getting the very best comms they can. As a result, the Team 18 crew are now asking us for more flexibility and features, not fault finding which is great as this gives us an opportunity to work with our partners at Riedel and Kenwood and help push their product innovation along.”

In supercar racing good, efficient and reliable comms is the technology you just cannot succeed without.

Jason Owen explained, “Many teams have ‘missed’ critical radio calls over the years that have cost them races. Our aim is to ensure our solution never puts Team 18 in that position. Having worked with the team now for nearly five years, Charlie is very much a no-nonsense type of guy. I respect that as that’s exactly how I play as well and as a result, we enjoy a mutual respect for the pursuit of excellence. So far, our excellent relationship and our comms have resulted in Team 18 winning races and that’s just how we like it.”

Adrian Burgess concluded, “D2N are market leaders in communications and broadcast equipment and their experience in motorsport means they anticipate our needs and allows us to concentrate on delivering results on track. Calm and reliable comms mean calm people and calm people deliver good results – it all adds up.”

To see and download a video on the latest technology developments from Team 18 and D2N – Technology Solutions click here.