THERE is a neat hidden story to the latest number change confirmed for the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship.
Triple Eight this morning released the Objective-backed livery of Jackson Walls, and confirmed a move to #11.
That’s a shift from the initial announcement of Triple Eight’s two-year deal with SCT Motorsport featuring renders with the #12 being carried across, as had been run by Jaxon Evans when the entry was based out of Brad Jones Racing.
Now for the good part: that this is bound to reunite #11 with the Perkins family.
That’s because Jack Perkins is widely anticipated to be Walls’ co-driver for the 2026 Ryco Enduro Cup.
The Perkins surname is synonymous with the #11.
Larry Perkins ran the double-one in 313 Supercars Championship races, and for each of his final three Bathurst 1000 victories – not to mention three Sandown 500 wins too.
Perkins Engineering retained the number after LP’s retirement, with Steven Richards taking over the mantle for the bulk of the next three seasons.
Jack Perkins himself drove the #11 PE main game entry in 2007 and part of ’08, and carried forward the number at Kelly Racing.
Perkins Sr was later part of a handover process to pass Dick Johnson Racing recruit Anton De Pasquale the #11, while Perkins Jr in 2023 splashed the #11 on a retro Castrol livery for Sandown on a Super2 Commodore that was officially #70.
Perkins/#11 would rank as one of Supercars/ATCC’s most iconic number associations, perhaps only behind the likes of Brock/#05 and Johnson/#17.
Walls meanwhile has run #11 in previous years through his Porsche Carrera Cup and Super2 days.
Other recent Supercars number changes have included Will Brown adopting #888 and Brodie Kostecki taking on #17.