Supercars 2024: Will Brown scores maiden Triple Eight victory at Bathurst 500

Ford flyer Chaz Mostert’s horror pitlane change helped deliver Triple Eight recruit Will Brown his first victory for his new team in the second leg of the Bathurst 500.

Triple Eight recruit Will Brown has claimed his first victory for his new team in the second leg of the Bathurst 500 as Chaz Mostert vowed to “keep the Bulls honest” this season after a double-podium buoyed his hopes of joining the championship fight.

After his teammate Broc Feeney’s win in the opening race on Saturday, Brown completed back-to-back wins for the Red Bull squad to deliver the perfect start for the powerhouse team’s championship campaign.

It completed a dominant weekend for Triple Eight in its first round following the departure of triple Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen, who won both races and took both pole positions at the iconic circuit.

Brown’s win followed his second place behind Feeney on Saturday and delivered him the early lead in the Supercars championship at the end of the first round.

Mostert had looked in a strong position to give Ford its first win of the year until Brown got the advantage in pit lane during their second and final stop.

Brown followed Mostert into the pits with 11 laps to go, but the Toowoomba pilot emerged in front of the Walkinshaw Andretti United star as they exited pit lane.

Will Brown celebrates on the podium. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

The WAU crew had issues changing the Mustang driver’s front right tyre and were forced to fit old rubber instead.

The result gave Brown, who Triple Eight recruited to replace van Gisbergen after his switch to racing NASCAR in the United States, his sixth career win.

Brown finished a second and a half ahead of Mostert, with Feeney in third place.

“It means a lot, first round with the new team to get a win, to get a pole position this weekend, I’m absolutely stoked,” Brown said.

“Thanks to everyone at Red Bull Ampol Racing, I’m absolutely knackered, it was pretty hard out there, I had Chaz just pushing me along and I was thinking ‘Can you piss off?’ and he wouldn’t.

“But it was really good. I had to save my tyres and get her home until the end.

“I could see it was going to be close (at the pit stop), but I was glad to get out in front of him and he’s fast on those out laps, I thought he was going to have a lunge at me somewhere and he is a hard racer. Just trying to keep a bit ahead, but geez he is quick down the hill.

“It’s an awesome start to the year, absolutely stoked with it. It’s a long year ahead, all these guys are going great, so we’ll see where we end up.”

Brown now holds an early 11-point lead over Feeney in the championship after the first round, with Mostert sitting third after a pair of podiums at Mount Panorama.

After a brilliant start to the race when he jumped pole sitter Feeney, Mostert had led the race for 23 laps before losing his advantage to Brown.

But Mostert, Ford’s leading driver in last year’s championship in fourth place, had still been buoyed by his double-podium which has fuelled his hopes that he can be a genuines title challenger this season.

“This game is all about millimetres and inches and by the time that we came into pit lane, I made a little mistake at the Chase and we had a wheel nut go as well, it just wasn’t our day,” Mostert said.

“To sit up here and feel slightly disappointed that we didn’t execute and get the win today, we’ve also got to reflect on where we were last and still be bloody proud of what we’ve been able to do in this break in such a short period of time.

“This will give us a really big morale boost as a whole team. I think we know we can achieve what we want to do and we want to keep these Bulls honest.

“If you had told me at the start of the weekend that I would have two podiums, I would have bought it.

“You’ve got to think like that (we can be genuine title challengers), if you’ve had a performance like us this weekend, you’ve got to think that you can be in the title hunt.”

Will Brown with the Bathurst 500 trophy. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

Feeney had earlier claimed Triple Eight’s second pole position of the weekend, but was unable to capitalise on it off the start as he was jumped by Mostert and James Golding, but his hopes were soon hurt again.

Feeney didn’t wait long to try and get back a position on Golding, diving down the inside at the bottom of the Chase later in the lap and forcing the PremiAir driver wide off the track.

Race control slapped Feeney with a five-second time penalty for a driving infringement after the incident.

“Apologies to (Golding), there was a gap there and I went for it and unfortunately we both had a bit of a wobble and came together and both were worse off,” Feeney said.

“Apologies to those guys and my team because we had a rocket ship today, I think it actually even better than yesterday which is hard to believe.

“Pumped for Will Brown to get a win and it’s been a great weekend for the team.”

Tickford Racing’s Thomas Randle and Golding rounded out the top five in the 40-lap race.

With Brodie Kostecki missing, Jack Le Brocq finished eighth for Erebus Motorsport, with Kostecki’s stand-in Todd Hazelwood 13th.

There was more heartache for WAU rookie Ryan Wood, whose race was over early again after suffering damage when he was caught up in a race-start incident.

The highly-rated New Zealand youngster did not even make it past the first turn in Saturday’s race after he ran off the track after contact.

The next Supercars championship round is the Melbourne SuperSprint at the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix next month.

Feeney leads home Triple Eight one-two at Bathurst 500

Triple Eight’s Broc Feeney went some way to easing his Bathurst 1000 heartache from last year after leading home new teammate Will Brown to win the opening race of the Supercars season at Mount Panorama.

After having his race hopes crushed by a late gear issue in last year’s Great Race, Feeney’s fortunes at the iconic circuit turned to secure a Triple Eight one-two finish at the Bathurst 500 on Saturday.

Feeney led Brown across the finish line under safety car conditions after rookie Aaron Love put his Mustang into the wall at the Cutting on the third last lap.

The Triple Eight Camaros finished ahead of the Ford of Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert, who had been in hot pursuit of the Bulls before the late safety car.

As Triple Eight started the season without triple Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen in the car for the first time in nine years, Feeney and Brown ensured the team’s bid to reclaim its status as series champions got off to the perfect start.

In a race that featured a lost wheel for Ford star Cam Waters and heartache for two rookies, it was a strong start for Brown at his new team after he earlier pipped Feeney to claim his first pole position for the squad.

For Feeney, it helped ease some of the pain of his crushed campaign in last year’s Bathurst 1000. The 21-year-old had been sitting second and chasing down then teammate and the eventual race winner van Gisbergen when a gear shift issue cruelled his chances with 25 laps to go.

Broc Feeney celebrates his win.

Vision of a devastated Feeney in tears with his head in his hands with his car parked in the garage was a heartbreaking image from the 2023 endurance classic.

“It’s a little bit better than last year,” Feeney said after his opening 2024 win.

“It’s great to be here, (it’s) just a fantastic job by the team to have (built) two new cars this year, a new teammate that has come out and one-two qualifying and then the race today.

“I’m pumped, my first win on a Saturday, so hopefully we can have a good one (Sunday) and keep that rolling.

“I’ve had a pretty good run here (at Mount Panorama), last weekend was good at the 12 Hour, but for sure I felt like I needed a win to get me going again.

“It still hasn’t made up for it (last year), we’ll be trying to chase that one in October.

“I’m pretty excited to see some orange numbers on the car (on Sunday) – and we want to keep them.

“We want to have a real solid day tomorrow to try to get back to the front of pit lane, it’s where everyone wants to be.”

Dubbed Mr Sunday for his habit of winning races on the final day of the weekend, the win delivered Feeney’s first Saturday victory in Supercars.

Bathurst 1000-winning co-driver Richie Stanaway, making his return to the Supercars grid for Grove Racing, finished fourth in his Mustang as Matt Stone Racing’s Cameron Hill completed the top five with a career-best finish.

With defending champion Brodie Kostecki missing from the field, his stand-in at Erebus Motorsport Todd Hazelwood finished 11th with his teammate Jack Le Brocq 13th.

The result gave former Erebus driver Brown his first podium in 11 races after a tough second half to last year’s championship.

“It’s awesome to roll out this strong and have both cars up the front is great,” Brown said.

“For me last year, I didn’t roll out that great for the first round and then built on it from there.

“To have this strong result straight out of the gate is awesome. Hopefully we can keep that rolling and keep that going.”

Mostert was the top Ford in last year’s championship standings, finishing fourth, and said his WAU car for the opening race was the best he has had yet in Gen3, but felt more work needed to be done on finding engine parity.

“The guys gave me a mega car … the car was a lot of fun to drive, this is probably the funnest I have had driving this car,” Mostert said.

“I was trying my hardest to catch the guys at the front, but even if I got to them I didn’t think I would have much for them, especially after the start of the race.

“I really appreciate WAU, they gave me the best car that I have had in the Gen3 era. That was a lot of fun to drive.

“What Supercars have done in the break from the aero point of view was pretty amazing, I thought the cars looked quite balanced across the top when I was quite close to the other guys at the start.

“But the speed trap numbers don’t lie, my personal opinion is they need to do a lot more in that area.”

After starting on pole, Brown cleared the first turn ahead of teammate Feeney, but the field had barely made its way up Mountain Straight before the yellow flags came out after rookie Ryan Wood ran off the track after contact with Tim Slade.

The incident ended Wood’s race as his damaged car had to be retrieved from the sand and towed back to the garage.

It completed a tough day for WAU’s New Zealand recruit, who was earlier stripped of a start in his first top-10 shootout. Wood had qualified eighth, but was pushed back to 14th on the grid after his best lap was deleted due to it being set while yellow flags were out.

There was another dramatic moment on lap 35 when Waters dramatically lost the front left wheel off his Mustang and it went rolling down the mountain, narrowly avoiding oncoming traffic, including Mostert.

“I got pretty close (to it), I was pretty much up on the inside kerb … because the tyre was darting at me,” Mostert said.

“He (engineer Sam Scaffidi) gave me a lot of warning pretty much as I was coming through turn one that there was a wheel running down the hill from the Cutting.

“Thank god no one hit it.”

Feeney with the trophy.

Feeney initially took the lead from his teammate when he emerged just in front of Brown following his first pit stop. Triple Eight moved to split the pair and strategy on lap 24 when they brought Brown in for his second stop and kept Feeney out on track.

Feeney came in for his second stop five laps later and had built enough of a lead on the field to emerge in front of Brown when he rejoined.

After rookie Love found the wall for the second time during the race on lap 38, Feeney had to take the chequered flag under the safety car conditions.

“Unless you extend the race, I don’t really see what (else) we could have done there at the end,” Feeney said.

The drivers have another 250km race at Bathurst on Sunday.

BROWN CLAIMS FIRST POLE POSITION IN DREAM START AT BATHURST

Triple Eight recruit Will Brown has claimed his first pole position for his new team as the Red Bull squad secured a front-row lockout for the opening race of the Supercars season at the Bathurst 500.

In his first top-10 shootout for the powerhouse squad, Brown pipped his new teammate Broc Feeney to claim prime position for the start of Saturday’s 250km race.

The second last driver to hit the track, Brown topped Chaz Mostert’s leading time with his 2:06.37 effort around the Mount Panorama circuit and Feeney (2:06.58) was unable to better his teammate’s time on the final lap of the shootout.

Brown has made the most high-profile move for the 2024 season after crossing from the title-winning Erebus Motorsport to replace Kiwi ace Shane van Gisbergen and has wasted no time in making a statement at his new team.

The 25-year-old Toowoomba pilot was now looking forward to a “good drag race” off the start line with Feeney.

“It was awesome out there, I had a little bit of cloud cover but put a really tidy lap together,” Brown said.

“I’m happy to get pole position for the first weekend with Red Bull Ampol (Racing) is awesome, so stoked with it.

“He (Feeney has been) doing a good job over the top, there were a few things I had to work on over the top and I feel like I got it right that lap.

“Like I say, I was just tidy, I didn’t really make a mistake.

“It will be a good drag race off the line and we’ll see where the strategy falls from there.”

The Triple Eight duo will start first and second on the grid in their Camaros for the opening 40-lap race ahead of the Ford of Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Mostert, Matt Stone Racing’s Cameron Hill and Grove Racing’s Richie Stanaway.

James Golding, Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki’s stand-in at Erebus Todd Hazelwood, Nick Percat, Anton De Pasquale and David Reynolds completed the top-10.

Reynolds struck trouble in the shootout, suffered a flat rear right tyre on his out lap and was unable to put down a time and will start from 10th for his new squad Team 18.

There was disappointment for Walkinshaw Andretti United rookie Ryan Wood, who was stripped of a place in his first top-10 shootout.

Wood had qualified eighth, but will now start from 14th on the grid after his best lap was deleted due to it being set while yellow flags were out when Matt Payne ran off the track at the final corner.

BROWN’S FLYING START TO NEW ERA

Triple Eight recruit Will Brown has made an instant impression at his new team after topping practice on the opening day at the Bathurst 500 to launch the Red Bull squad’s post Shane van Gisbergen era.

On a strong day for Triple Eight after his teammate Broc Feeney earlier set the top time in the first session on track, Brown showed why he was targeted to replace van Gisbergen when he produced the fastest time of the day in a rain-hit session at Mount Panorama.

After a late red flag when Will Davison ran off the track, Brown emerged on top amid a flurry of late flying laps with his 2:07.55 effort around the mountain, while Feeney backed up to finish third fastest.

Defending Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki’s stand-in for the opening round, Todd Hazelwood, made the most of his call-up for the title winning Erebus Motorsport squad to finish second fastest in Friday’s final session.

New Triple Eight driver Will Brown made a fast start. Picture: Supplied

Brown defected from Erebus to join rivals Triple Eight and fill triple Supercars champion van Gisbergen’s seat following the Kiwi star’s move to race NASCAR in the United States.

The 25-year-old and Feeney will form the youngest pairing on the grid in what team boss Jamie Whincup has described as the most exciting driver line-up in the field.

Brown, fifth in last year’s championship, said it had been a strong start at his new team.

“I felt good on my lap,” Brown said after practice.

“It definitely feels different (at a new team). It’s a pretty big change this year coming across to Red Bull Ampol (Racing) and I have noticed that. But it’s been really cool.

“I think I have the tools I need to succeed this year and I think it’s cool working with Broc and it’s been a good start for the year.”

Hazelwood was called on to fill Kostecki’s seat for the opening round after the champion’s falling out with Erebus and could be there for much longer amid the unresolved saga.

He said he was determined to make the most of the opportunity he had been presented with.

“Just taking every lap and every opportunity that I have got in front of me and grabbing it with both hands,” Hazelwood said.

“I’m really fortunate to be strapped into a car that’s more than capable, the team is more than capable and really fortunate to have some fantastic engineers and mechanics that have provided me with a fantastic chassis.

“I felt really comfortable both in the wet and the dry and I wasn’t taking too many risks or anything like that. We all know how tough it is to put a lap around here at the best of times, so when you can do it confidently and comfortably in both conditions, it’s a shot in the arm full of confidence.

“I’m just trying to put my best foot forward and do the best job. Now, wherever that lands me, I don’t know.”

Will Brown on track in Bathurst. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

Grove Racing’s Matt Payne was the top Ford Mustang in fourth, while Matt Stone Racing’s Nick Percat rounded out the top five.

It was a dramatic start to the final practice session after rain hit Mount Panorama not long before the drivers hit the track.

The session was red-flagged after just six minutes when Anton De Pasquale and David Reynolds became casualties of a slippery track at the bottom of the Chase.

De Pasquale was the first to skid off into the gravel before Reynolds followed him off at the same part of the track, spinning his Camaro into the wall.

The session was stopped for almost 15 minutes while the cars were retrieved.

Reynolds, driving for new squad Team 18, recovered to finish 12th in the session, just ahead of De Pasquale.

Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Ryan Wood was the top rookie, finishing 11th fastest.

While Hazelwood pushed his car up into the top two, Brown’s replacement at Erebus, Jack Le Brocq, was back in 22nd after earlier engine issues in the opening session.

If the off-season had not been dramatic enough for champions Erebus motorsport with the Kostecki fallout, the team hit trouble on the opening lap of the first practice session.

Le Brocq had barely got the car on track when he was forced to quickly park his Camaro at the Cutting after a sudden drop in oil pressure.

Le Brocq had to get a tow back to the pits and he spent the rest of the session in the garage.

The squad was then forced to replace the engine in Le Brocq’s car in between the first and second practice sessions.

Setting the pace in the opening session, Feeney said he immediately felt sharp on the track after plenty of laps of the circuit last weekend in the Bathurst 12 Hour.

“It’s been a good day, felt good rolling out of the gate,”

“It was a solid P1 and that (second) session then it was such weird conditions … I probably didn’t expect to be here towards the end of the session, but I’m pumped, the car has rolled out real strong and I’m certainly looking forward to tomorrow.”

There is qualifying, a top-10 shootout and a 250km race ahead of the drivers on Saturday.

Originally published as Supercars 2024: Will Brown scores maiden Triple Eight victory at Bathurst 500