Supercars 2024: Will Brown has claimed another victory for the season, winning at Taupo
Will Brown surpassed teammate Broc Feeney to extend his lead in the Supercars Championship, claiming a strong win in New Zealand following a disappointing Sunday.
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Championship leader Will Brown declared his victory in the Taupo finale as the “best race of his life” after leading home a Triple Eight one-two when he emerged on top in a fierce late-race battle with teammate Broc Feeney to put the powerhouse squad back on top.
After the team suffered its worst results of the season as Kiwi Andre Heimgartner won in the wet in Saturday’s first race in Taupo, Brown gave Triple Eight back its ascendancy to take his third win for the season and the team’s sixth victory from eight races this year.
Feeney had been on target for his fourth win of the season on Sunday until Brown moved past him with eight laps to go as the pair waged an entertaining late-race duel, which prompted a warning from the team garage to race cleanly.
As Brown extended his championship lead, the Triple Eight duo finished ahead of Ford rival Anton De Pasquale, who claimed his second podium of the weekend.
After finishing third on Saturday, De Pasquale’s result was enough for him to seal the Jason Richards memorial trophy, in a strong weekend for the Dick Johnson Racing driver.
Saturday’s opening Taupo race was the first time this season neither Triple Eight car had finished on the podium after Brown finished ninth and Feeney 21st, but their fightback was swift.
Brown’s win opened up his championship lead to 71 points over Feeney and said he had relished the on-track battle with his teammate.
“It was awesome racing between the team there. That’s what it is all about, I hope everyone out there in NZ loved that,” Brown said.
“God, I was buggered at the end there. I was trying everything to get around him, but I locked the rears and just got around.
“It was a mega day. Thanks to everyone at Red Bull Ampol (Racing), I hope everyone enjoyed it and I had a lot of fun with Broc there.
“I might have touched him (Feeney) once, but I was trying not to. It was hard to resist when you’re in a battle like that. It was awesome, great fun and that’s the best race of my life.
“We’ll go and have a few beers to celebrate tonight.”
Feeney had started the race from second on the grid behind pole sitter Matt Payne and took the race lead from the Kiwi on lap 11.
The 21-year-old young gun had then been on target for the race win for a large portion of the race until Brown started hunting him with about 15 laps to go.
“Obviously we were trying to hang on there, but Will had a lot of speed there and congrats to him and the team, we are a lot better off than we were 24 hours ago,” Feeney said.
“The big thing was just trying to reset and forget about yesterday and just get on with my job today.
“Obviously good qualifying makes a big difference, but two fast race cars, as always thanks to the team. So I’m looking forward to getting back to work and trying to beat this young fella.
“I know every point counts and that’s why we were fighting pretty hard out there, it’s been a lot of fun racing with Will, he has been super fun since joining the team.
“So I’m looking forward to racing with him for the rest of the year and hopefully I can get a few up on him.”
De Pasquale’s results marked a strong turn-around in form for DJR, which had not been on the podium before this weekend.
“It was pretty cool to go from a DNS (in Melbourne) to winning the next round, which is good,” De Pasquale said.
“Heap of points, obviously we have been struggling at the start of the year to execute in races, we have qualified in the top 10 I think every race, but we haven’t had many finishes there.
“So to get a couple of podiums is really cool. It is a completely different style of track so I think this suits us a little bit more than where we have come from.
“But to win the round and win the JR trophy it’s special, I know how much it means to everyone and it means a lot to us, too. I’m very honoured to win it.”
After claiming his second pole, New Zealander Payne fell short of a podium finish in the race on home soil, finishing fourth.
Starting from third on the grid, defending champion Brodie Kostecki fell back in the field and finished 11th in his return round after missing the opening two events at Bathurst and Melbourne amid his breakdown in relations with his team, Erebus.
After the drivers battled pouring rain in Saturday’s race, Sunday’s 200 km battle played out in dry conditions at the North Island circuit.
Supercars attracted 67,411 fans to the round in Taupo in the series’ return to New Zealand after a two-year absence.
Kiwi young gun impresses as returning champ stakes claim
Kiwi young gun Matt Payne will be targeting a second victory in as many days for New Zealand drivers at home after putting his Ford on pole for Sunday’s final race in Taupo, while defending champion Brodie Kostecki will start from the second row of the grid.
The day after compatriot Andre Heimgartner claimed victory in a rain-soaked opening 200km race, Payne secured the second pole of his Supercars career in the top-10 shootout.
The Grove Racing driver edged out Triple Eight young gun Broc Feeney with his 1:26.817 lap to put his Mustang at the front of the grid.
In his return to the Supercars field after sitting out the opening two events at Bathurst and in Melbourne amid a breakdown in relations with his team, Kostecki made a return to the top-10 shootout and will start third behind Payne and Feeney in his Erebus Camaro.
Dick Johnson Racing’s Anton De Pasquale, who finished third in Saturday’s race, and Triple Eight’s championship leader Will Brown completed the top five.
Payne will now be aiming to join Heimgartner as a Kiwi winner at home after four NZ drivers finished in the top-10 on Saturday.
“It’s unbelievable. I managed to get the lap together there,” said Payne, who was 13th in Saturday’s 60-lap race.
“It’s really crucial to warm the tyres up, it’s so cold today. So I managed to do a good job there and just put together a pretty clean lap I thought.
“The margins are so close, what a way to start our Sunday. We executed in qualifying, we executed yesterday in qualifying, just didn’t have the luck on our side.
“But today we definitely had the luck and it’s really good so far … we’ve just got to execute this afternoon.”
Kostecki’s Erebus teammate Jack Le Brocq, Thomas Randle (Tickford Racing), Tim Slade (PremiAir Racing) and Walkinshaw Andretti United pair Chaz Mostert and Ryan Wood made up the rest of the top-10.
After his breakthrough win in the wet – his first in three years – Heimgartner narrowly missed out on a spot in the top-10 shootout.
Heimgartner was 11th fastest in qualifying, just ahead of Saturday’s pole sitter Cam Waters, who also missed the cut.
Career highlight win for Kiwi on a ‘crazy day’ at Taupo
Kiwi Andre Heimgartner hailed the highlight of his Supercars career after surviving treacherous conditions to win his home race at a rain-soaked Taupo amid start-line carnage, a rival’s lost wheel and penalty for defending champion Brodie Kostecki in his return to the grid.
In a wet and wild battle at the New Zealand circuit, Heimgartner delivered a masterclass in the slippery conditions to claim his first race win in three years and just the second of his Supercars career.
After a dramatic start to the race when pole winner Cam Waters and Tim Slade collided off the start line and spun into the wall on pit straight, Heimgartner kept his Brad Jones Racing Camaro out of trouble to take his first victory since his maiden win at Tailem Bend in 2021.
The New Zealander led home the Dick Johnson Racing pair of Will Davison and Anton De Pasquale, who delivered the Ford squad its first double-podium of the Gen3 era.
But there was heartache for Ford race challenger Chaz Mostert, who dramatically lost a rear wheel with less than 20 laps to go when he was in pursuit of Heimgartner.
Heimgartner was one of four Kiwis to finish in the top 10 with Walkinshaw Andretti United young gun Ryan Wood finishing fourth to claim the best result of his fledgling career, Richie Stanaway’s strong drive to finish sixth from the back of the grid and Jaxon Evans in 10th.
But there was to be no immediate impact for reigning Supercars champion Kostecki in his return after missing the opening two races of the season amid the breakdown in relations with his team Erebus when he missed the top-10 shootout and then copped a 15-second time penalty for a driving infringement during the race and finished in 14th position.
Heimgartner, who celebrated his win with burnouts in the wet, said the victory at home was an undisputed career highlight.
“It’s definitely a highlight for a Kiwi to win at home for sure,” Heimgartner said.
“My family is here, who don’t get to go to many races. It definitely rates as the highest one and if you have to pick one throughout the year it is up there with Bathurst for us (New Zealanders).
“Then doing a burn-out in front of the crowd and you could just hear them over your car is pretty awesome.
“It means a lot. I would almost rather win one of these races than any other one on the calendar for us.
“It’s the first win for BJR for a long time and a long time since I last won.
“Heading into this round, we had done pretty poorly so to actually have a good race and get that under our belt was really good.”
As Heimgartner and DJR broke through, it was the first time this year that neither Triple Eight car had finished on the podium.
Championship leader Will Brown finished ninth, but extended his championship lead over his Triple Eight teammate Broc Feeney, who finished 21st.
In a race which featured two safety cars in the opening 10 laps of the 200km battle, Davison described the conditions as some of the worst he had ever experienced on track.
“The race was just nuts … probably some of the toughest conditions I have ever raced in,” Davison said.
“Just when that heavy rain came down at the end …. there were certain corners on the new surface where the aqua-planing was shocking for me at the end. I was so close to going off so many times.
“(It was) an important race, an important result for us. We are just knuckling down, trying to block out the noise. But just good timing, crazy day.”
It was a dramatic start to the race after the drivers barely got off the start line before chaos ensued when Waters and Slade came together on pit straight and ended up in the wall.
Slade’s race was over, but Waters was able to return to the field after quick repairs and then produced a stunning comeback to finish in eighth.
Waters had earlier claimed his second pole of the year in a rain-drenched top-10 shootout.
Mostert had been firmly on target for a podium when he lost his right rear wheel on lap 42 and eventually finished in 22nd position.
The result cost the WAU star crucial points as the leading Ford driver in the championship standings chasing the Triple Eight pair.
“Bit of a kick in the guts that one,” Mostert said.
“We had a really good car today, but it didn’t fall our way. We’ll be back tomorrow.”
While Waters stormed through the field, Stanaway also delivered one of the drives of the day, making up 17 positions after starting 23rd.
Brown leads the Supercars championship by 59 points ahead of Feeney with Mostert another 83 points behind in third.
SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS
RACE 7 – TAUPO, NEW ZEALAND
1. Andre Heimgartner (Brad Jones Racing)
2. Will Davison (Dick Johnson Racing)
3. Anton De Pasquale (Dick Johnson Racing)
4. Ryan Wood (Walkinshaw Andretti United)
5. Jack Le Brocq (Erebus Motorsport)
SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1. Will Brown (Triple Eight) 659
2. Broc Feeney (Triple Eight) 600
3. Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United) 517
4. Richie Stanaway (Grove Racing) 454
5. Nick Percat (Matt Stone Racing) 453
WATERS CLAIMS POLE
Tickford Racing star Cam Waters has defied wet and wild conditions to claim pole position for Saturday’s opening race in Taupo as defending champion Brodie Kostecki missed a place in the top-10 shootout – and he was not the only big name to miss out.
In heavy rain at the New Zealand circuit, Waters put his Mustang on pole for the second time this Supercars season with his 1:34.74 lap after he was able to put down his time before the conditions deteriorated further for the tail-end of the shootout.
Waters was the third driver out in the wet, but the rain only got heavier for the drivers at the back-end of the session.
The Ford driver claimed pole ahead of Triple Eight’s championship leader Will Brown and Kiwi Andre Heimgartner (Brad Jones Racing), while provisional pole sitter Matt Payne will start from eighth.
Waters said he was happy to accept some “good luck” after a rough start to the season and predicted some “spicy” racing in the wet on Saturday afternoon for the 200km race.
“It was obviously a pretty wild qualifying, half dry and half wet and then obviously full wet then (in the shootout) and I got pretty lucky with it getting wetter through the session,” Waters said.
“But in saying that, the car was pretty hooked up and it felt comfortable straight out of the gate. I’ve had a lot of bad luck this year, so I’ll take a bit of good luck then, the team did a great job.
“The track is pretty cool, I love the tyre deg. I think it is going to be a pretty spicy race in the wet or the dry. Hopefully we can keep her up the front and get a win.”
Waters’ team had to completely strip and rebuild his Mustang following the round at the Australian F1 Grand Prix when he was involved in a big Saturday crash with Payne.
Tim Slade, young Kiwi Ryan Wood, Cameron Hill, Chaz Mostert, Payne, Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison completed the top-10 for Saturday’s race, but there were some big names to miss out on the shootout.
In his first qualifying session this year after missing the opening two rounds following a stand-off with his team Erebus Motorsport, reigning champion Kostecki was 15th fastest.
Triple Eight young gun Broc Feeney, who sits second in the championship behind his teammate Brown, also failed to make the shootout and will start from 13th.
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