In what was one of the more humbling weekends in the 2024 Supercars Championship, the team departs Far North Queensland with a renewed resolve to turn things around.
Sunday’s qualifying in Townsville was a tough nut to crack, putting a brake on any hopes of repeating Saturday’s 3rd place comeback for Will Brown, whose 17th place in qualifying provided no good omens for the race later in the afternoon.
“The whole day was pretty terrible, to be honest. Qualifying was really hard, and we just didn’t seem to have the qualifying pace this weekend, but I think our race pace was pretty good. It was really disappointing to qualify 17th, that was by far the least competitive we’ve been all year.”
Qualifying down the field, at a venue like Townsville, only made matters worse for the series points leader.
“In the race, I had an incident on the first lap which was my own fault. I didn’t realise (David) Reynolds was there because I was focusing on (Mark) Winterbottom and making sure I kept a distance from him.”
“I didn’t realise we were three-wide and just moved across a little bit too far which was completely my fault.”
“Overall, it was an up-and-down weekend. Our race pace was good but obviously in qualifying we have a lot of work to do. We’ve been fast everywhere else in qualifying but just really struggled here. It’s only a week-and-a-half until Sydney, so we have to focus on that now.”
Not all was lost in the opening laps for Car #87, as massive work by the team in the garage kept Will circulating and finishing, which could be a crucial element points-wise to his Championship chase.
While he might’ve avoided major chaos, BFeen’s qualifying struggles might have dented his chances of going forward during Sunday’s race. “We were still obviously struggling quite a bit in qualifying this morning, but it was a positive to make it into the shootout again.”
“My shootout lap just felt like I had no grip, but surprisingly we moved up a few spots. It was obviously not where we wanted to be, but good to be in the top six.”
It wasn’t just Bull #87 that copped a whack on Sunday, as Bull #88 was pinched and prodded through the opening corners.
“I got an ok start in the race, and when I went into turn one it was only two-wide, and I was just out-braking (Jack) Le Brocq, but then (James) Courtney made it three-wide which made it quite tight.
Unfortunately, it’s the game you play at turn one – when you can’t get on the inside there’s a high chance you can get hit.
“To be honest once I got through there, I probably dropped a couple of spots, but then I got run into the fence by a DJR car at the exit of turn three, and I lost another four or five spots.”
BFeen wrapped up his weekend with a second 7th place finish and felt optimistic about his race pace.
“Apart from our first stint, I think we were really competitive in our second and third stints. I think our pace in the last stint was as quick as Cam (Waters), so there are positives to take out of it.”
“I felt like it could have been a third or fourth place today, but on days like these you just have to keep finishing and be as competitive as possible.”
Fortunately, there’s no time to dwell—Sydney Motorsport Park beckons in just over a week – a chance for the Bulls to shake off the dust and charge ahead.
