The Hi-Tec Oils Super Series has pulled off a major coup, announcing the marquee signing of successful Supercars Championship team manager Jeff Grech as Technical Advisor to the series.
Grech is best-known for his leadership positions at Supercars teams; he was team manager for the Holden Racing Team from 1993 to 2002 and general manager of operations for Holden Motorsport from 2003 to 2006. During that time, HRT won six championships and four Bathurst 1000s. He also worked in management roles at Tasman Motorsport and Team 18.
More recently, Grech was elected onto the committee of the Benalla Auto Club at last month’s Annual General Meeting.
Grech’s Technical Advisor role will see him working closely with Hi-Tec Oils Super Series categories, advising them on matters such as technical regulations, enforcement and cost containment.
Grech’s appointment to the position came after a discussion with BAC General Manager Stephen Whyte.
“When Stephen spoke to me about his plans for the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series for 2023, I thought it was a great chance to get involved, assist in the growth of the series and get back to working with competitors who have a passion for the sport,” Grech said.
“I can see a real need for this series in our motorsport landscape, and the partnership that Stephen has created with Hi-Tec Oils will provide the competitors with some great opportunities and stability for the future.”
Grech is looking forward to assisting Hi-Tec Oils Super Series categories with their development, and highlighted the variation in technical philosophies between the different categories.
“On one hand, you have a class like the Mazda RX8 Cup, which is a tightly-controlled onemake series where the cars are virtually identical, and there needs to be a high degree of enforcement to ensure compliance with the technical regulations,” he said.
“At the other end of the scale is a category like Australian Super TT, which is open to all different types of cars and has a lot more technical freedom, but still needs to have some restrictions to ensure the costs don’t get out of control.
“My role will be to provide advice to categories on the best ways to formulate and enforce their technical regulations to enhance the experience for their competitors, while minimising costs.”
Whyte said Grech’s appointment will be of major assistance to all Hi-Tec Oils Super Series competitors.
“The opportunity to have someone of Jeff’s calibre joining our team for the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series is a real coup, and provides us with an enormous depth of knowledge that will provide real benefits to our competitor base,” Whyte said.
Grech will be in attendance at each round of the 2023 Hi-Tec Oils Super Series, which commences at Winton on 17-19 March.