DJR’s #17 Mustang on track with door numbers. Image: Pace Images
The topic is a passion point among fans who yearn for the numerical markings of decades past, before the digits were transferred to windows in 2008.
Supercars recently tabled the potential return of compulsory door numbers to teams in a Commission meeting.
However, teams in the meeting made clear they fought for the right to sell that space to sponsors and have no intention of handing it back over.
“That’s prime real estate for us,” Triple Eight team boss Jamie Whincup told Speedcafe.
“We’re running a model in team land heavily reliant on sponsorship, and we need all the real estate and exposure and opportunity we can get.
“So there’s absolutely no way that I’m signing off on half my door as a number and not real estate that I can sell to a corporate partner.
“While I agree it looks great, we need more opportunity to generate sponsorship.
“I can assure you, there’s not one team in our pit lane here that’s turning a profit.”
GRM will run door numbers on its Bathurst wildcard. Image: Supplied
Whincup’s pointed comments come as teams and Supercars owner RACE continue to wrestle over payments in a renegotiation of the Teams Racing Charter.
Teams remain free to run door numbers if they choose, with Matt Stone Racing and Garry Rogers Motorsport both doing so this year as part of retro liveries.
DJR also leaned into the door numbers theme at its season launch, revising its livery so that Dick Johnson could undertake a ceremonial handover of his #17 to Brodie Kostecki.
A Speedcafe poll run in the aftermath of that launch showed 94 percent of fans are in favour of bringing back door numbers.
If Supercars wants to make door numbers compulsory, though, Whincup believes the category must pay for it.
“You never actually just sell the door, it’s always a package,” he said.
“But if they came to us and said ‘we’ll pay you’, then let’s say it’s $300,000 and you’d probably consider it.”
A $300,000 bill per car would work out to over $7 million across the entire 24-car field.