Surf, sand, sunshine and Supercars – what’s not to love about racing on the Gold Coast!
Normally, we head to the Gold Coast and know full well how challenging the weekend at Surfers Paradise can be. But throw in sudden elimination, courtesy of Supercars’ first-ever round in the Finals series, and EVERYTHING gets a whole lot more serious.
The level of intensity this weekend has been cranked up several notches as the race to earn your place at Sandown is critical. A race win from anyone inside the top ten is an automatic entry. Outside of that, the top 7 will progress through to Sandown. However, as proven in our past two races, nothing is really for certain.
Broc and Jamie headed into the Enduro campaign firm favorites to claim the further 25 bonus points as Enduro champs, but pit stop issues and the Mountain grabbing you when you least expect it meant Broc was parked with 19th and 6th places chalked up. What isn’t lost in the enduro madness was Broc’s race pace, as lap times at The Bend, and an impressive climb to 6th in the wet at Bathurst have meant Broc stays top of the points tree.
Will continues to chip away, and although a strong result may have gone begging with a clip of the tyre barriers at Turn 2 at Bathurst, he is continually in the right position at the right time. The time is now for Will, and a return to championship-winning form on the Gold Coast is exactly what the doctor ordered. Watch for Will to be right up on the pace, as the punchy car salesman will not be backed into a corner this weekend.
Hear more from our boys below and get yourself up to speed before we crack into the Finals! 👇
Will Brown
Driver #1 Chevrolet Camaro
Red Bull Ampol Racing
“Feeling excited for the first round of the finals. It’s obviously going to be a big weekend, and there’s going to be a lot of pressure across the races; it’s a big change to our championship. But looking forward to getting into it, trying to get some great results this weekend, and hopefully moving through to Sandown.”
“It’s been a really quick turnaround. It’s good, these quick turnarounds, though. You definitely focus up more the whole time between the rounds because you’re debriefing Bathurst, then straight on to pre-briefing Gold Coast. So, I feel like I haven’t been home, but that’s all right.”
“But the #1 crew has been on it, we’ve had good race pace, and it’s got me feeling confident. We just have to focus and boost our qualifying results as we head into the Gold Coast, and we’ll be right there. Race pace is obviously still a massive thing here, but qualifying is a large point of the weekend, and I think we need to qualify well this weekend to stay away from all the trouble further back.”
Broc Feeney
Driver #88 Chevrolet Camaro
Red Bull Ampol Racing
“I’m keen as. Having a home race is always awesome. It’s always super special to be racing at home. I am just loving the tight turnaround, to be honest. It’s really cool to come off the back at Bathurst and then be straight into the first round of finals. Looking at the points, I’m glad I’ve got the bonus points (from the Sprint Cup), but it’s still going to be high stakes all weekend; it’s all to play for. Everyone’s going to have to get really good results to make sure you’re in a good position to get through to Sandown. So, for me, nothing really changes from the sprint rounds.”
It’s all about going to the Gold Coast and trying to win a race and automatically get through to the next round. It’s an awesome track, it’s a crazy track, and hopefully we can have a good, successful weekend and get a couple of surfboards.”
“I feel like our car’s going to suit a track like this. We were pretty strong there last year with a couple of thirds, and we’ve obviously had a lot of good car speed lately. It’s been a shame that we haven’t been able to get any results for the last couple of rounds, but I also feel like we’ve certainly shown that we’ve still got a lot of race and qualifying pace as well. Hopefully, we can have a clean weekend and get back into a rhythm and get a bit of momentum on our side heading into this final series.”
It’s going to be a massive weekend of on-track action, with Practice 1 kicking off a huge on-track weekend in the sun at 12:40 PM on Friday! We look forward to seeing as many of our supporters at the track, and we hope you are tuning in from home all week!