Supercars news 2024: Brown strife for Bathurst 1000 qualifying after Pye crash, Payne lands first blow

Supercars championship leader Will Brown is facing a mad race against time to be ready for the all-important qualifying session for the Bathurst 1000 after his co-driver Scott Pye “screwed up” and crashed their car during Thursday’s practice.

Supercars championship leader Will Brown is facing a mad race against time to be ready for the all-important qualifying session for the Bathurst 1000 after his co-driver Scott Pye “screwed up” and crashed their car during Thursday’s practice.

With just a handful of minutes to go in the second hour-long practice session, which had already been delayed after brown snake slithered on to the famed circuit, Pye took the wrong line in the run up to The Cutting, the steep climb up to Mount Panorama, and slammed the team’s Chevrolet into the concrete wall.

He walked away from the crash unharmed but the car was badly damaged by the impact, leaving the team’s mechanics with a huge job to repair the wreckage in time for Friday night’s qualifying for the top-10 shootout.

SCOTT PYE HAS GONE HARD INTO THE WALL AT THE CUTTING 💥

The session has been red flagged.

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— Supercars (@supercars) October 10, 2024

“I just made a mistake,” Pye said. “The Cutting’s tricky. I didn’t think I was off line that much but I just lost the rear and that was it, it was game over.

“Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you get unlucky with damage but at the end of the day it was my mistake and I’m sorry everyone that has to now work to fix my screw up.”

Brown dismissed his team mate’s error as nothing more than a racing accident and said he was confident the mechanics would be able to fix the car in time.

“It’s one of those things, super easy to do,” Brown said. “I’m sure Scotty will be a little bit upset with himself but we’ll get him back in high spirits before the race.

“It looks bad on TV, obviously where it’s torn out the wheel there, but hopefully it’s not too bad.”

Brown is the favourite to win this year’s Bathurst endurance race despite seemingly being cursed at the iconic track, finishing no better than eighth in his six previous visits to Mount Panorama.

He looked in sizzling form when he was behind the wheel during Thursday afternoon’s first practice session, setting the third fastest time overall after putting on a set of fresh tyres at the end after spending most of the time working on his set up for the weekend.

Will Brown is the current championship leader. Picture: Getty Images

New Zealand young gun Matt Payne set the quickest lap in the first session for the primary drivers.

With his fellow Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen now racing NASCAR in the United States, this year’s classic is shaping up as one the most open in years with the top 16 drivers separated by less than a second.

Payne, who has already been anointed as the brightest new star from across the Tasman, topped the timesheets with a blistering lap of 2:07.294 in his Mustang Ford but the margins were razor thin.

Cam Waters was second quickest in 2:07.331 with Brown listed as third after recording an identical time.

“It’s a great start to the weekend,” said Payne’s co-driver and five-time Bathurst winner Garth Tander.

“It looked like the car rolled out pretty nice. He was complaining about quite a bit of high-speed understeer for the first half of the session.

“That’s how you really want to roll the car out when you get here for Bathurst at the start of the weekend because it’s a more comfortable balance trait to have in the car.”

Matt Payne struck the first blow in the build-up to Sunday’s Bathurst. Picture: Getty Images

Waters is still chasing his first Bathurst victory after some close shaves and rotten luck in the past, finishing runner-up in 2020 and 2021 and third in 2022.

He didn’t make it to the end of last year’s race when his co-driver James Moffat crashed their Ford at the Dipper then finished near the rear of the field at this year’s Bathurst 500 when he was struggling with health issues.

“First session ran very smoothly, a lot smoother than the 500 round at the start of the year,” Waters said.

“Great start to the weekend. The car is pretty good. We’ve got a bit of work to do but can’t complain.”

Chaz Mostert, who is second in the series standings behind Brown, was eighth quickest after completing just 14 laps while Broc Feeney, who is third in the championship race, was 15th while his co-driver Jamie Whincup was quickest in the shortened concluding session.

Originally published as Supercars news 2024: Brown strife for Bathurst 1000 qualifying after Pye crash, Payne lands first blow