Will Brown claims 2024 Supercars championship after Broc Feeney wins Adelaide 500
Will Brown has sealed his maiden Supercars championship after opening up an unbeatable lead over his teammate and title rival Broc Feeney, who led home a Triple Eight one-two in the first leg of the Adelaide 500 on Saturday.
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Will Brown has sealed his maiden Supercars championship after opening up an unbeatable lead over his teammate and title rival Broc Feeney, who led home a Triple Eight one-two in the first leg of the Adelaide 500.
Recruited to replace three-time Supercars champion turned NASCAR racer Shane van Gisbergen at Triple Eight, Brown added his own name to the list of the sport’s champions after a late charge to second place in Adelaide gave him an unassailable 168-point lead in the title standings.
As Feeney claimed his second win on the streets of Adelaide, Brown made history as the first driver in 40 years to secure a podium at every round of the Supercars calendar.
Holding a 180-point championship buffer leading into the final round, Brown needed to open up a gap of more than 150 points over Feeney at the end of Saturday’s race to seal the Supercars crown with one race to go on Sunday.
It has been a campaign underlined by incredible consistency from Brown, who secured the title despite claiming less race wins than his Red Bull teammate.
Brown has four race wins for the season, while Feeney now has six after his Adelaide win - the most of any driver in the field.
The 26-year-old has led the championship since the second race of the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix at Albert Park in March and Feeney was the sole driver still in contention to catch him leading into the final round.
The Triple Eight pair finished ahead of Tickford Racing’s pole sitter Cam Waters, while fellow Fords Matt Payne and Thomas Randle rounded out the top five in the first of two 250km races in Adelaide.
Brown raised his arms as he got out of his car in subdued celebrations in the Adelaide heat before being congratulated by his team and family.
The Toowoomba pilot thanked Feeney for helping push him to the championship in his first year with Triple Eight.
“I don’t think it has set in just yet,” Brown said.
“I thought how cool it was last year Brodie (Kostecki) winning the championship and I was in Broc’s situation and knew how it felt, but right now I don’t know how to take it, it’s really exciting.
“I’m over the moon and it’s what I have been working towards for a long time now. To join Red Bull Ampol Racing this year and win with them in my first year is fantastic.
“I just want to thank everyone at the team. They have done such a faultless job all year and that is really why we are in this position.
“Even Broc, I turn up every week going ‘Far out, he’s probably going to beat me’ …. that’s I think another reason why we’re up here one-two in the championship because we’ve got two fast teammates.
“I wish I could go out and get on the beers tonight, but I can’t, I’ve got to behave - that’s tomorrow night.
“To wrap it up today is awesome, it takes a bit of pressure off tomorrow and go out there and have some fun. It’s a bit of a surreal moment, I don’t think it has caught up with me just yet. I’m sure it will on Sunday night.”
It was a dominant win from Feeney, who finished 12 seconds ahead of Brown in the 78-lap race, but he was disappointed to miss out on the title.
“It’s not about us today, it’s about Will, congrats to him and his whole team on a fantastic season,” Feeney said.
“We haven’t given up, that’s for sure, we knew we had to come here and win, but they’ve been super strong.
“A 12-second win is obviously good and we have got an important race tomorrow and then an even bigger race next year.
“I won’t lie, I am obviously disappointed, I want to be up on the top step, but Will has just done a fantastic job this year.
“Honestly, he is breaking records for 40 years and all that sort of stuff, so him and his team have done a fantastic job, but we didn’t give up, the back half of the year we have been super strong.
“So I’m super proud of my team and we have got one to go and we’ll finish back up on top and then bring on next year.”
Brown later said he was keen to run the No.1 on his Camaro for his title defence next year.
His predecessor van Gisbergen preferred to keep his favourite No.97 after his championship wins.
“I haven’t actually spoken with the team yet to see what we’ll do there yet,” Brown said.
“I would say probably (I’d) be disappointed if you didn’t run it and you didn’t get the opportunity later in your career. So I think while you’ve got the opportunity now you’d probably have to run it.”
Waters had earlier led a front-row lockout for Tickford after he claimed his seventh pole position of the year in the Top 10 Shootout.
The Ford star sealed the Supercars pole position award for 2024 with his shootout lap to prove his status as the series’ qualifying master.
“Probably one that got away for sure, but still happy with the day,” Waters said.
“Practice we really struggled and turned the car around today and obviously to get pole was awesome.
“I knew Will was going to get me for sure, but I just wanted to stay on the podium and just got there in the end.”
STANAWAY WITHDRAWS
Richie Stanaway has been withdrawn from Saturday’s first race at the Adelaide 500 after experiencing delayed concussion symptoms following his big impact in qualifying on Friday and will be replaced by Dale Wood.
Grove Racing said the decision to sit Stanaway out from the 250km race was made after consultation with Supercars medical delegates on Saturday.
Stanaway was one of three drivers to crash heavily at Adelaide’s infamous turn eight just before Cameron Hill and David Reynolds struck trouble at the same corner.
The team said another test would be conducted on Sunday to assess whether Stanaway would be able to drive in Sunday’s race.
Grove Racing initially announced Stanaway would be replaced by young gun Kai Allen, but he was deemed ineligible to race due to his Super2 commitments.
Dale Wood, Stanaway’s co-driver for this year’s enduros, then got the late call-up.
Co-owner Brenton Grove said Stanaway had experienced headaches and other symptoms and the team did not want to take any risks with his health.
“Richie is not feeling too great, it seems like he has got some delayed concussion symptoms from his shunt yesterday
“It was quite a big hit, it was the biggest of all three in terms of G-force and it was completely side-on so it’s really not good for the brain.
“Richie mentioned he had some headaches and some symptoms that we were probably a little bit worried about, so we have sent him straight after practice this morning to the medical centre to get checked and hasn’t quite been cleared.
“So certainly for today we want to make sure that richie rests and that he is 100 per cent right and we’ll do everything we can to get him back in the car tomorrow, but this track is brutal, there are a lot of concrete walls and we can’t be putting a drive at risk of getting worse conditions or having any sort of long term injury.”
Stanaway had qualified 11th for the first of two 250km races in the session, but Wood is listed on the official starting grid as starting from 24th after the driver change.
“We had wanted to get Kai into the car, which we can’t do because of the regulations based on he needs to compete in Super2, so the stewards have got nowhere to move so we can’t use him,” fellow team owner Stephen Grove said.
“So we got Dale. I just did the race with Dale in the Porches and it was pretty tough, so I don’t know how he is going to do it, but he’s ice bathed and he’s ready to go.
“(Richie) needs some more assessment. His crash was 52g I think they said, which was more than the other two, so we’ve just got to make sure we look after him and he’s right so we’ll see how he goes tomorrow.”
WATERS CLAIMS POLE
Supercars qualifying master Cam Waters has claimed pole position for Saturday’s first leg of the Adelaide 500 in a front-row lock-out for Tickford Racing, while Will Brown will fight to seal the championship from fifth - behind his title rival and teammate Broc Feeney.
After the chaos of Friday’s qualifying session, Waters again proved to be the benchmark driver over one-lap in Saturday’s Top 10 Shootout to claim his seventh pole position of the year.
Waters edged out his Tickford Racing teammate Thomas Randle with his 1:19.962 lap to seal the Supercars pole position award for 2024.
Triple Eight young gun Feeney’s bid to stay alive in the title battle was given a boost after finishing ahead of Brown in the Shootout and will start from third on the grid.
Grove Racing’s Matt Payne, the Sunday winner in Adelaide last year, was fourth ahead of Brown, whose time suffered after a small error early in his Shootout lap.
Waters said his car was as strong as it had felt since arriving in Adelaide and hoped he could convert from pole in Saturday’s first 250km race.
“I won’t lie, this weekend has been pretty challenging for us, we just haven’t really been in the window and the car has been super edgy and hard to drive,” Waters said.
“That’s probably the best that the car has felt to be honest in hot, breezy conditions.
“Massive credit to my team, they’re awesome, love them all and they gave me a really fast car just then and obviously really great to convert it into a pole, we just need to convert it again into a race win.”
Cam Waters is the one lap king of 2024 👑
— Supercars (@supercars) November 16, 2024
With 7 and room for one more, he takes out the @BoostAus Pole Champion Award!#RepcoSC#Supercarspic.twitter.com/L1qWDOQOkB
In his first Top 10 Shootout, Blanchard Racing Team rookie Aaron Love was sixth fastest, while Brad Jones Racing duo Jaxon Evans, Bryce Fullwood, Love’s teammate James Courtney and BJR’s Macauley Jones rounded out the top 10.
Jones’ lap was ruined after he locked up his tyres heading into turn four and ran off the track.
Brown holds a 180-point lead in the championship standings over Feeney and needs to finish more than 150 points ahead of his teammate if he is to seal the Supercars crown on Saturday.
Feeney needs to eat into Brown’s lead by 30 points or more if he is to keep the title battle alive on Sunday.
Three cars, one wall: Engineers works through the night to repair Supercars carnage in Adelaide
Team 18 and Matt Stone Racing have worked through the night to repair the wrecked cars of David Reynolds and Cameron Hill after Friday’s shocking qualifying crashes at the Adelaide 500.
Reynolds and Hill were able to get back on track for Saturday morning’s practice session after the huge overnight jobs from their crews to rebuild their totaled Camaros.
Both drivers’ cars were left with significant damage after frightening smashes at Adelaide’s infamous turn eight.
A Team 18 spokesman said some crew left the track at 6.30am to shower and returned to apply the finishing touches to the car, which was still getting done just half an hour before the morning practice session.
“It was huge (effort) … the boys have done an amazing job,” Team 18 team principal Adrian Burgess said.
“Some of them needed to go back to the hotel and get some sleep, which we’ll do tonight hopefully.
“There wasn’t really any team that didn’t come up and offer assistance if we needed it and I was ringing up one of the teams, which will remain nameless, at 11.30pm trying to get into their truck when they’d all gone home because we needed something.
“But that’s the level people go to to get the cars back on the grid and put on the show that we do, so it’s great.”
Reynolds will start from 21st on the grid for Saturday’s afternoon’s first 250km race, while HIll will start from 23rd place.
CARNAGE AWARDS BROWN POLE AT ADELAIDE 500
Championship leader Will Brown has been awarded provisional pole for the first leg of the Adelaide 500 after qualifying was red-flagged after a crash-filled session when the track’s notorious turn eight claimed three victims in succession.
After barely five minutes of on-track action, three drivers slammed into the concrete at the same high-speed turn within the space of half a minute of each other.
Richie Stanaway, Cameron Hill and David Reynolds all found trouble after smashing into the concrete at turn eight, with Hill and Reynolds’ cars left totaled.
WOW#RepcoSC#Supercarspic.twitter.com/BKhOZJ5not
— Supercars (@supercars) November 15, 2024
Brown was on top of the timesheet when the session was red-flagged with stewards later suspending the session before it was declared after a lengthy delay to clean up the track.
Aiming to seal his maiden Supercars crown this weekend, Brown booked his spot in the Top 10 Shootout on Saturday ahead of Tickford Racing pair Cam Waters and Thomas Randle, his Triple Eight teammate Broc Feeney and James Courtney.
After a qualifying session Brown described as “crazy”, the Red Bull star was relieved to be sitting on top when the session was declared by the stewards.
“I wasn’t sure if they were running it (qualifying) again tomorrow or what they were thinking, but I’m glad that it was called in the position we’re in,” Brown said.
“It was a crazy session. I didn’t know if something was down on the road, (if there was) a bit of oil down and then I watched everyone and they just seemed to turn in too early and hit the inside fence.
“That was a pretty big shunt with Reynolds and Cam Hill.
“I’m glad to get that qualifying session over and done with, it’s unfortunate circumstances, but glad to be in the top 10 and hopefully be up there for tomorrow. The safest place on the grid is pole position.”
Grove’s Matt Payne, Blanchard Racing Team rookie Aaron Love and Brad Jones Racing trio Jaxon Evans, Macaulay Jones and Bryce Fullwood also secured a place in the Top 10 Shootout.
Walkinshaw Andretti United star Chaz Mostert was the biggest casualty, sitting in 22nd position when the session was red-flagged, while Brodie Kostecki (12th) also missed the Shootout.
Brown is now aiming to seal the championship in Saturday’s first 250km race.
“It would take a lot of pressure off on Sunday (to seal the title Saturday) …. we all as drivers want to wrap it up as soon as possible at the end of the day to take the pressure off,” Brown said.
“Who knows. Broc is always fast around here .. so he is going to do a good job tomorrow, I’m sure. But obviously I want to wrap it up tomorrow. That would be the ultimate goal.”
In a dramatic trio of crashes, Grove Racing’s Stanaway was the first to kiss the concrete, but managed to nurse his Mustang back to the pits with damage to his bonnet.
Matt Stone Racing’s Hill was not so lucky after he clipped the inside wall at the same turn moments later, slamming heavily into the outer concrete wall before ricocheting across into the track and into a spin before his wrecked Camaro came to a rest.
Reynolds was caught out just seconds later, hitting the concrete before also spinning down the track and coming to a rest on the back of Hill’s car.
Reynolds was able to get out of his smashed up Camaro and then assist Hill out of his car.
The Team 18 veteran, who has been fast since hitting the track in Adelaide, refused to make excuses for his crash.
Turn 8.#RepcoSC#Supercarspic.twitter.com/kRIwUs4QMo
— Supercars (@supercars) November 15, 2024
“I probably stayed on the brake too long and just turned myself into the fence and had a crash myself,” Reynolds said.
“I was probably just over-committed to be fair. A stupid mistake.
“There are definitely some shadows across (the track), but that’s not my excuse. Not at all.
“I feel sorry for the boys. Hopefully we can fix it and get out tomorrow, we’ve got one of the fastest cars in pit lane, so it’s a shame.”
A gutted Hill said was also left to lament his dramatic shunt at turn eight, which had bitten him before.
“That’s the exact same crash that I had there last year, so I’m three from three at turn eight at the moment,” Hill said.
“So I hope that’s me done at that corner, I feel like I’ve paid my dues.
“I’m just gutted, I’m gutted for the guys. It’s pretty cooked.
“(It was) the first push lap, it is different, there are all shadows there. I’m not going to say that’s why I shunted, but just a real shame.”
Randle and Waters were both relieved to have put a fast lap down early before the session was cut short.
“It’s a 15-minute session, so it’s incredibly short and I guess we have been caught out before,” Randle said.
“This time it was just go straight out the gate on greens and try and put a banker down because you don’t know what can happen. No one saw that coming.
“It’s great that everyone’s OK, that’s the main thing.”
Waters said there was no room for error at turn eight.
“You don’t need to get it very wrong to be very wrong there and I think that’s just what happened,” Waters said.
Brown holds a 180-point lead in the championship standings over Feeney, who is the only other driver still in mathematical contention for the Supercars crown.
Adelaide’s streets have wreaked havoc across all divisions so far.
Earlier on Friday, a Super2 driver hit and completely knocked over a heavy concrete barrier after losing control in a scary smash near the end of qualifying at the Adelaide 500.
Reuben Goodall was able to walk away from the frightening crash which happened after he clipped the wall at turn three and lost the front right wheel from his car.
Stadium Super Trucks faced a Motorsport Australia hearing as the high-flying support category’s Friday qualifying session was cancelled after on-track carnage on Thursday.
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