Supercars held its Pit Stop Challenge finals in the Bathurst CBD for the first time as part of a new Wednesday evening fan event televised live on Fox Sports.
The revised format included the cars being driven in and out of the makeshift pit boxes, rather than being pushed by mechanics.
Matt Stone Racing (Nick Percat, #10 Camaro) booked a place in the final by beating the Blanchard Racing Team (Aaron Love, #3 Mustang) in the first semi.
Triple Eight (Broc Feeney, #88 Camaro) then defeated long-time pitstop kings Brad Jones Racing (Macauley Jones, #96 Camaro) in the second semi.
Following the semi-finals, the strip of road used for the Pit Stop Challenge played host to a novelty event involving fans dragging eskies between obstacles.
With encouragement from Percat, the winning punter celebrated with a ‘shoey’, spilling most of a can of NED Whisky on the ground near Feeney’s Camaro as he did so.
Matt Stone was left hoping that the incident would help his team get over the line.
“We’ve got a bit of bourbon on the ground in front of that car, so that should hopefully help them lose some traction,” he laughed when asked of his team’s strategy.
However, the Triple Eight crew delivered in the final, with Feeney driving across the finish line mere centimetres ahead of Percat.
“The boys work so hard, the whole team works hard on this,” said Triple Eight engineer Andrew Edwards, clutching the Golden Rattle Gun prize. “It’s a prize for their hard work.”
Speaking earlier, Feeney had noted that Edwards has helped Triple Eight improve its pit stops since joining the team in 2022.
“The team has been doing a fantastic job,” said Feeney. “They’ve been training heaps. Obviously, Andrew coming from BJR has been really good for the team.”
The Wednesday evening event included a ‘Track to Town’ parade in which all 26 Bathurst 1000 entries were driven from the circuit and into the CBD.
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