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Jamie Whincup is concerned that the move to a ‘live’ pit lane order for Supercars could have safety repercussions.
Supercars is set to move to a dynamic pit order system next season where the order has the potential to change round-to-round.
Currently, pit order is determined off the teams’ championship standings from the previous year, with the title holders at pit exit.
That will only be the case for round 1 next season, before the garage order is updated round-to-round based on current teams’ championship points.
The system has the support of Barry Ryan, whose Erebus team leads the teams’ championship standings heading to the final round in Adelaide later this month.
However Whincup, whose Triple Eight squad is the reigning teams’ champion, is less sure.
He says his concerns are less about wanting to retain the pit exit garage, and more about the familiarity that comes with having the same neighbours throughout and entire season.
Chopping and changing garage order could, in his opinion, create questions over safety during pit stops.
“I’m not a fan of it, and you probably think I’m saying that because I don’t want to lose that front garage,” he told Speedcafe.
“But I don’t like it. You’ve got continuity between you and your neighbours. You know your neighbours and at round 1 there’s a few little mix ups, but then you sort it out and you work out your organisation in pit lane.
“When you are just all over the joint, and you’ve got different neighbours week-in, week-out, for me… I won’t pull the safety card, but for me there’s no doubt there’s going to be less familiarity in pit lane than what there should be.”
Erebus holds a 170-point lead over Triple Eight heading to Adelaide where there are 576 points up for grabs.
