Erebus locks in Hazelwood race number

EREBUS Motorsport will revert to running the #99 on Todd Hazelwood’s brand-new Gen3 Camaro Supercar after all.

Barry Ryan had flagged a surprise with the championship-winning team’s choice of number for the car that had initially been destined to don the #1 and be driven by Brodie Kostecki.

That of course has not come to be, with Kostecki sitting out this weekend’s Thrifty Bathurst 500 and widely tipped to have made his last start for Erebus. As the 2023 champion, Kostecki is the only driver entitled to use #1 at race meetings this year.

V8 Sleuth understands Erebus had settled on #199 for Hazelwood, which would have marked the first such use of that number – famously associated with American ace Travis Pastrana – in ATCC/Supercars Championship history.

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However, the decision was subsequently made to put the matter to a team vote, and the overwhelming majority passionately supported the retention of #99.

Erebus has used #99 since the start of 2017, and #9 since its inception having inherited the latter from Stone Brothers Racing.

Jack Le Brocq has taken over from Will Brown as the new-for-2024 #9 driver.

The Erebus crew also chose to keep the status quo of having Car #9 closer to pit exit than #99, so it will be Le Brocq occupying the garage at the top end of town this weekend at Mount Panorama.

A live pitlane concept has come into effect this season, meaning the teams’ championship standings at the end of the Bathurst 500 will determine the pitlane order for Round 2 next month at Albert Park.

Confirmed: Pitlane order for the 2024 Thrifty Bathurst 500