{"id":427282,"date":"2026-01-21T07:53:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T07:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/427282\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T07:53:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T07:53:15","slug":"supercars-news-jamie-whincup-reacts-to-forced-triple-eight-pit-lane-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/427282\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: Jamie Whincup reacts to forced Triple Eight pit lane split"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                            \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Supercars-Townsville-Supercars-236.jpg\" alt=\"Triple Eight reacts to Supercars pit lane split\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJamie Whincup with race engineer Martin Short. Image: InSyde Media&#13;<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s despite the expanded Triple Eight team being prevented from running its three cars in consecutive garages.<\/p>\n<p>Whincup was adamant the <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/supercars-news-2025-pit-lane-implications-triple-eight-sct-motorsport-brad-jones-racing-comments-explained\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SCT Motorsport Mustang would be housed alongside the two Red Bull entries<\/a> when the customer deal was announced last year.<\/p>\n<p>Triple Eight previously operated under that structure from 2016-18, when its Craig Lowndes-driven third car shared a pit boom with the single-car Tekno Autosports.<\/p>\n<p>However, the SCT entry\u2019s move from Brad Jones Racing left the third BJR car as the only other without a pit lane partner in the 24-car field.<\/p>\n<p>That led to various interpretations of how the pit lane would work.<\/p>\n<p>Supercars has subsequently reworded its pit lane rules and clarified that the SCT car, which is deemed a one-car team, will be paired with the third BJR entry.<\/p>\n<p>The odd couple will be tethered to whichever is the lower ranked of the two-car Triple Eight or BJR squads in the teams\u2019 championship that determines the pit lane order.<\/p>\n<p>Reigning teams\u2019 champion Triple Eight is therefore set to start the year with its Red Bull cars at the head of the order and the SCT Mustang in the second half of the pack with BJR.<\/p>\n<p>The issue was hammered out towards the end of last year and <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/supercars-news-2026-triple-eight-brad-jones-racing-third-car-to-form-team-pit\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">made official today via the public release of the final 2026 operations manual<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/supercars-news-2026-triple-eight-brad-jones-racing-third-car-to-form-team-pit\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Third Triple Eight, BJR cars to form \u2018team\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a reasonable outcome for us, it seems like the fairest and most reasonable outcome for all parties,\u201d Whincup told Speedcafe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ve changed the rules to change what we\u2019ve normally done historically, but it\u2019s a unique situation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn an ideal world we\u2019d have the car beside [our other entries], but we know that heavily compromises the rest of the field.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just want what\u2019s the best solution for all of us and we feel like collectively we\u2019ve come up with the best call.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Supercars pit lane structure is built around pairs of cars, with 12 pit booms for the 24-car field.<\/p>\n<p>Last year there were 10 two-car teams and the four-car BJR, leaving no such issues over odd numbers outside of wildcards.<\/p>\n<p>Whincup expects Triple Eight will share crew with BJR to service the SCT entry during pit stops, but said discussions around details are yet to occur.<\/p>\n<p>Both teams are busy preparing new cars for the season, with Triple Eight switching from GM to Ford and BJR from GM to Toyota.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the moment we\u2019re just trying to get our own ducks in a row,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo doubt we will have to share [people], but I don\u2019t believe that discussion has happened as of yet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it\u2019ll be single car garages with walls down either side and a shared pit boom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/285249\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/285249.gif\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; Jamie Whincup with race engineer Martin Short. Image: InSyde Media&#13; That\u2019s despite the expanded Triple Eight&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,95585,806,805,803,804,12357,85,7500],"class_list":{"0":"post-427282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-jamie-whincup","11":"tag-motor","12":"tag-motor-sports","13":"tag-motosport","14":"tag-motosports","15":"tag-slot1","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-triple-eight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}