Defending champion Will Brown ready to be the hunted after launching Supercars season with Sydney Harbour Bridge drive
Supercars launched its 2025 season with defending champion Will Brown leading a Gen3 fleet of cars with a spectacular drive over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Now he’s ready to go back-to-back.
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Reigning champion Will Brown declared he has “reset” and is ready to be the hunted this year as he prepares to defend his Supercars crown with the coveted No.1 on his car.
The Triple Eight star helped launch the 2025 Supercars championship on Sunday, leading a fleet of Supercars in a spectacular drive over the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Ahead of the opening round of the season at Sydney Motorsport Park this week, the first time Supercars champion steered his Red Bull over the bridge under NSW police escort along with defending Bathurst champion Brodie Kostecki, former Bathurst winners Chaz Mostert and Nick Percat, Cam Waters, Anton De Pasquale and Matt Payne.
Brown’s Chevrolet Camaro, which Triple Eight will campaign in for the last time this season before the team’s switch to Ford from 2026, proudly sported the No. 1 after his maiden title win last season.
The 26-year-old Toowoomba pilot said he was ready to launch into his title defence with the target on his back.
“I can’t wait, getting to Sydney (Motorsport Park) will be awesome,” Brown said after his drive over the bridge.
“(I’m) just really looking forward to getting out there and running the No. 1 for the first time.
“Last year when we got the lead in the championship I felt like people were already hunting, so I don’t think it is too different this year.
“It’s all just a reset right now. Having the No. 1 on is amazing, but we will see the first round, if we can get that championship lead again.
“It all just resets this year and (we) get back into it. You want to try to win the championship again, you want to try and win Bathurst, but there are 24 other guys out there that want to do that as well.
“It’s not an easy feat, but I’m really enjoying it and it would be great to go back to back this year, but like I say it’s not easy.”
Brown said it had been an amazing opportunity to drive a Gen3 Supercar over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but admitted he had been disappointed he could not crank up the pace.
“The drive over the Sydney Harbour Bridge this morning was pretty cool this morning for sure,” Brown said.
“Unfortunately it was pretty slow though, it would have been cool if we were up to a bit more speed and doing some skids or something.
“Unfortunately, I did not get to have a great look around, we were sort of making sure we were in formation and getting the photos and everything but I did try to take it in, it’s pretty cool to be able to do this today.”
Defending Bathurst 1000 champion Brodie Kostecki will make his debut for new team Dick Johnson Racing in this week’s opening round after four seasons at Erebus Motorsport.
Kostecki said it had been a smooth transition to the Ford squad so far.
“It’s been great, I’ve felt really welcome within the team,” Kostecki said.
“It’s a really big outfit and I’m still adjusting and learning everyone’s names, but it’s been a really cool experience so far.”
Kostecki lapped up his drive over the Harbour Bridge and admitted he was just trying to “behave” behind the wheel.
“It was fantastic to drive the Shell V Power Mustang over the Sydney Harbour Bridge … what a picturesque view we have behind me, it was really cool,” Kostecki said.
“I had some pretty unstable guys around me, so I was making sure I wasn’t getting run into or anything like that, we don’t want to damage the car before the first round.
“I was just making sure I was staying in my line … I was just trying to behave.”
The Supercars season will kick off at Sydney Motorsport Park on Friday.
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Originally published as Defending champion Will Brown ready to be the hunted after launching Supercars season with Sydney Harbour Bridge drive
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