The Pirtek Pit Stop Challenge final has been postponed due to the wet conditions at Mount Panorama, Bathurst. Supercars has said that the event will be rescheduled for either the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 or Valo Adelaide 500 season finale.
With Brad Jones Racing winning the Golden Rattle Gun trophy for the last three years running, the pit stop challenge would have seen defending champions take on Andretti Racing, Dick Johnson Racing and Triple Eight Race Engineering in the Mount Panorama pit lane. Instead, wet weather has seen the event planned for Gold Coast or Adelaide rounds subject to weather at those events.
The Pirtek Pit Stop Challenge was inaugurated in 2017, with teams competing – as opposed to individual cars – for a $20,000 prize pool. Following points accumulated at specific rounds this season, including the previous event at Pukekohe, New Zealand, Walkinshaw Andretti United is currently tied with Dick Johnson Racing for the lead on 149 points, with BJR third (143) and Triple Eight Race Engineering in fourth in 119.
Supercars has also decided not to allow fans to its pit lane evening broadcast, which will now take place in the team garages rather than the pit area. The decision was made for safety reasons, said a Supercars statement, given that fans traditionally have stood in pit lane during the broadcast.
“Unfortunately, the weather gods haven’t been kind so we won’t have fans joining this year’s program,” said Supercars Head of Broadcast David Tunnicliffe. “The show will go on and it will be a lot of fun, so we hope all our fans tune in after another exciting day here at Mount Panorama.”