How a live pit lane would have looked in 2023

With the Supercars Championship adopting a ‘live’ pit lane order in 2024, we look at how teams would have set up if the system was in place this year.

Supercars will next year dispense with the long-running practice of setting pit lane order based on the previous year’s teams’ championship results.

While the teams’ championship will still be the primary determinant of which outfit goes where in the lane, it is the standings at the end of the preceding event (or the end of the preceding season, in case of the season-opener) which will be used.

Triple Eight Race Engineering set up in the first pair of garages in Newcastle this year, as it would have done under either system, having won the title in 2022.

However, the twin disqualification from Race 1 of the season hit it hard, leaving the Hunter Valley eighth on the points table and hence, under the 2024 system, would take up the 10th pit boom at Albert Park.

The discrepancy is because the four-car teams, namely Brad Jones Racing and Tickford Racing in 2023, may be treated as separate two-car teams for the purpose of the championship, but still move as four-car teams in the lane, under both the old and new systems.

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With strong results at Albert Park for Erebus Motorsport and Triple Eight, the former retained the lead which it had earned in Newcastle and the latter moved up to second in the teams’ championship.

Erebus would go on to lead the championship at the end of every event all season and hence would always have sat in the garages nearest pit exit, with Triple Eight next door.

BJR’s #8/#14 ‘team’ settled into third in the standings once the season hit halfway at the NTI Townsville 500, meaning its #4/#96 pair of cars would have been serviced from the fourth pit bay.

While it is not too surprising to see less change in the hypothetical live pit lane as the season wears on, it turns out that fourth in the teams’ championship was quite hotly contested and that would have meant a lot of chopping and changing from event to event.

After its rough start to 2023, Dick Johnson Racing recovered to fourth by the end of the Sandown 500 and was would have been fifth in the pit lane for the season finale in Adelaide.

Next February at Mount Panorama, though, it will set up in the sixth pair of garages because, in the end, it was usurped by the #5/#6 ‘team’ of Tickford Racing, which slims down to two cars in 2024.

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Other notables include Grove Racing, which dropped to 10th in the teams’ championship at one point, and thus 12th in our hypothetical live pit lane due to the BJR and Tickford quartets.

It lifted itself to seventh in the final standings thanks in part to two wins in the latter three races of the season and therefore is set to take up the eighth pair of garages in pit lane at the Bathurst 500.

The Blanchard Racing Team, of course, would have been furthest from pit exit all year given it was the only single-car team in 2023 (wildcards aside).

When the 2024 season kicks off in just under three months’ time, Erebus will enjoy pride of place at the pointy end of the pit lane – but whether it stays there will depend on results at Bathurst and beyond.

Whether the old system or the new system is better is entirely subjective but, one thing is likely; pit lane will look quite different from one event to the next in 2024.

Hypothetical ‘live’ pit lane order in 2023