Pye will line up for the Enduro Cup as co-driver to Will Brown for a third straight year, this time sharing a Ford Mustang following the team’s defection from GM.

However, Pye will have to wait a few extra days for his first run in the Red Bull Ford due to a second bout of surgery that is scheduled for February 18.

“I broke the second smallest toe in my foot, it’s actually like the most embarrassing thing,” Pye said on his Apex Hunters United podcast.

“I was playing nerf wars with my nephew, kicked the side board on the staircase and broke the toe.

“[It was] bad enough that I had to have surgery last week and I’ve got another operation… which happens to be the Wednesday of that event, which is the test day.

“Then I’m flying to Sydney and hopefully I’m able to do the ride day on the Monday.”

The full-field Sydney test, held on the Wednesday prior to the season-opening Sydney 500, is one of two test days permitted for Supercars teams during the year.

An array of co-drivers turned laps during the Sydney test last year despite it being held almost seven months before the start of the Enduro Cup at The Bend.

Triple Eight has recruited Nick Percat to replace Jamie Whincup as Broc Feeney’s co-driver, while Jack Perkins is set to join rookie Jackson Walls in the customer SCT entry.

The team is expected to undertake shakedown runs with each of its three new Mustangs early next month ahead of the trip to Sydney.