TEKNO Autosports
Team(s): TEKNO Autosports
Manufacturer: Holden
Team Principal: Jonathon Webb
Chassis: Holden Commodore VF
Debut: 2010
Drivers’ Championships: –
Driver: Jack Le Brocq (Tekno Autosports)
A brief history
Tekno Autosports was established in the early 2000s initially for the motor racing activities of Stephen Webb, and later his son Jonathon Webb.
Originally set up as a Porsche team, the team then moved into the second-tier Fujitsu V8 Supercars Series and then as a satellite third team operation, linking up with veteran Ford racing team, Dick Johnson Racing for Webb’s first run in the V8 Supercars Championship.
The team made the switch to Holden in 2012, fielding two Triple Eight Race Engineering Commodore chassis’. That relationship still continues, but the team scaled back to one car in 2017 with the sale of the Paul Morris’ REC to Dick Johnson Racing and team boss Jonathon Webb stepping down from full-time driving to concentrate on his Tekno Performance road car business.
The small privateer team has excelled in the Car of the Future new-generation car and showed genuine pace in 2014 with Shane van Gisbergen finishing second in the championship, the highest placing of a single driver team since Glenn Seton in 1997. Van Gisbergen starred again in 2015 finishing fourth in the championship rankings, but departed for Triple Eight in 2016, with Will Davison filling his seat and bringing further experience and hunger to the single-car outfit.
It only took Davison two rounds to notch up his first Supercars win with Tekno Autosports, taking the lead in the dying stages at Symmons Plains. A competitive season was highlighted by a Bathurst 1000 win, Davison’s second and Webb’s first. Webb became the first person to win the Bathurst 1000 and 12 Hour in the same year, both as a driver and team owner. The downside to the 2016 season was team manager Steve Hallam leaving Tekno to take up a role at Toyota Racing Developments in California.
Davison stayed on at Tekno Autosports for 2017 with new sponsor Woodstock coming on board, but it proved to be a difficult season for the team despite finishing as the leading single-car operation. Losing Hallam was a major blow with the team suffering a performance slump. And after finishing a disappointing 15th, 2017 was to be Davison’s final season with the team, as he left to join the restructured Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport team, 23Red for 2018. However, after joining Tekno at the back end of the 2017 season in an advisory capacity, attending all three PIRTEK Enduro Cup rounds and the Newcastle season finale, the team announced in the new year that former Walkinshaw Racing managing director Adrian Burgess would be joining them as team manager for 2018.
2018
With Adrian Burgess in a full-time leadership role and a revamped team structure, a bright future is envisaged for Tekno Autosports. Burgess, whose credentials include titles at Dick Johnson Racing and Triple Eight Race Engineering, is targeting a return to form for the 2016 Bathurst-winning squad. Dunlop Super2 Series driver Jack Le Brocq replaces Davison after a four-year stint in the second-tier series and impressing in enduro drives with Tickford Racing and Nissan Motorsport. Without the experience of van Gisbergen or Davison it’s unlikely Le Brocq will be a serious championship threat in his first season, but having claimed top three championship finishes in three of his four Super2 seasons, Le Brocq is tipped to win the battle of the 2018 Supercars rookies.