“Big discussion” to make Supercars steering rack call

UPDATE: The first version of this story included comments from Brodie Kostecki who believed he had an issue related to a Tickford Racing-built steering rack. These have since been removed after clarification from Erebus Motorsport and Tickford Racing that the issue was related to an upright.

Supercars initially launched Gen3 with a Sportech steering rack but they proved to be troublesome throughout 2023 and into 2024.

Tickford Racing built its own version that some teams have adopted this year and the racks could become the standard across every car on the grid.

Eponymous team owner Matt Stone, Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Carl Faux, and Jamie Whincup of Triple Eight Race Engineering appeared in Friday’s team principals press conference.

In it, Stone and Faux confirmed they had tried both steering racks to varying degrees of success.

Whincup said work will still ongoing with the Sportech rack but indicated the category could turn to the Tickford-built equivalent permanently. That sentiment was echoed by Stone.

“There has been plenty of talk about steering racks since Gen3 (was introduced),” said Whincup.

“I don’t have shares in either, I just want the best product for the category. I like the fact that the Tickford rack is made by a charter holder and it’s in-house, which is nice.

“We’re on the program to try and get the most out of the Sportech rack for Supercars. We made some gains but obviously Tickford are doing the same as well.

“That’s a big discussion in commission-land at the moment to figure out what is the best rack and once we establish that work out how and when it can be implemented if the Tickford rack proves to be better than the Sportech.”

Whincup said Triple Eight tested the Tickford-built rack and gave feedback that led to significant improvements while Stone said he was “a fan” of the alternative rack.

“Performance-wise and driver feel, there’s not a huge variance between the two,” said Stone.

“Obviously the Tickford rack is Australian-made, made by people within Supercars, made to a standard we’re much more accustomed to – and for me, I think the biggest driving factor is the reliability.

“In our experience with the Sportech rack, it performs okay but it can have an unexpected failure that you can’t plan for. The Tickford rack seems much more robust.”