Supercars championship race ‘wide open’ as duo chase maiden title

The Supercars championship battle is wide open this year, with an emerging duel taking shape as the season reaches its pointy end.

Supercars championship leader Will Brown is confident he can win his maiden title this year, but the 26-year-old is taking it one race at a time.

Brown, who drives for Red Bull Ampol Racing, has a 105-point lead in the championship over Chaz Mostert, who shot up to second place in the standings with back-to-back race wins in Sydney last weekend.

Mostert, who drives for Mobil1 Optus Racing, now looms as Brown’s main challenger for the championship heading into the second half of the year.

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“For us it wasn’t as strong as we wanted it to be,” Brown told news.com.au of his results in Sydney

“We’re always looking to get race wins. We got a podium, which is great, and a sixth. Our rival in the championship this year Chaz Mostert got two wins. We’ve got to look at it and see what we can do better. Overall it was one of those weekends where if you’re not doing your best, you still need to bank points, and we banked a fair few points. 

“It’s always hard as a driver not to look at the championship. My engineer doesn’t like looking at the championship and I understand why.

“If you focus on the moment or a race on that weekend and try and execute as good as we can, the championship will play out however it plays out — you’ll win or come second or whatever happens but as long as you do the best in that moment, you did the best for the year you could have.

“We’re here to try and win a championship and win races. You try not to focus on it but it’s always in the back of your mind, I’m sure.”

Chaz Mostert is second in the standings. (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)

Will Brown has a handy lead in the championship.

With Kiwi duo Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen heading to IndyCar and NASCAR after claiming three Supercars titles each, the race for championships is wide open.

Reigning Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki is out of the running this year after a team dispute saw him only re-join the championship mid-season.

So it now appears a race in two between Brown and Mostert, a two-time Bathurst 1000 winner best known for his bold hairstyles.

“I guess even with Shane here last year Brodie won the championship and I felt like the championship was wide open last year even with him being here,” Brown said.

“There’s always a change of the guard and that’s sort of what’s happening now.”

Brown isn’t getting ahead of himself, well aware a maiden victory at Bathurst would put him in pole position to win the championship.

“It’s hard to talk about the championship until after the enduros,” he said.

“There’s such a big haul of points on the line. Until you come out of Bathurst, you don’t really know where you stand in the championship.

Will Brown is chasing his first Supercars championship. (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)

“After Bathurst, you know you’ve only got a couple of rounds left and if there’s only a hundred points in it, then I’d say we’d start thinking about the championship.

“But right now, it’s just head down bum up and try get through the enduro season and have a successful run. 

“It’s huge not only for the championship but winning a Bathurst is a lifelong goal. It’d be great to get both this year or at least one.

“I’m very focused on the championship, it’s great to be so consistent this year, but we’ll definitely have a crack at Bathurst and try to get a win there.”

Supercars heads to Tasmania, Sandown then Bathurst.

The Supercars season continues at the Tasmania SuperSprint on August 16-18, where bringing tyres up to temperatures in cold conditions will be a challenge for drivers.

“I’m looking forward to Tasmania,” said Brown. “It’ll be cold down there but I enjoy that track.

“They (tyres) always come up to temperature, it’s just how long they take. It’s a short lap in Tasmania. It’ll change your warm-up procedure.

“You generally do an out lap, then on your first lap the tyres are at their best. But with it being do cold I’m sure we’ll have to change that and look at how we change the tyres to do the fastest lap there.”

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Originally published as Supercars championship race ‘wide open’ as duo chase maiden title