Supercars Championship leader Broc Feeney has put the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs to the ultimate test, taking on his Supercar in a challenge of Tug of War.

NRL and NRLW players Matt Burton, Jacob Preston, Viliame Kikau, Tayla Preston, Alexis Tauaneai & Anglina Teekaraanga-Katoa went head-to-head against Broc Feeney’s Camaro. A vehicle that weighs over 1300kg and has 600+ horse power.

A simple game of Tug of War like you have never seen it before.

“It’s a hard cross over but at the same time, they are operating at the highest level of their sport, and we’re trying to operate at the highest level of ours.”

“I didn’t really know what to expect, but for it to come to life pretty quick has been a lot of fun.”

Feeney currently holds the championship lead at the halfway point of the Supercars Season, while the Bulldogs sit top spot on the NRL Ladder.

Broc Feeney
Driver #88 Chevrolet Camaro
Red Bull Ampol Racing

Check it out here: https://youtu.be/bEJR4CILqnc 

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 19^th and 6^th 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 6^th 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! 

And breathe. What a time to be a Supercars fan! Just when we thought Bathurst might have served up one of the races of all time – the Gold Coast has only gone and offered up one better, right as we head into crunch time at the Sandown semi-final.

Flying cars at Surfers Paradise might have been one of the greatest scenes our cars have ever produced – seeing our cars quite literally fly across the Beach Chicane was something to truly behold. But boy, did the weekend bring its chaos elsewhere. Will and Broc have dug deep and clinched a spot at Sandown, one of the storied and historic racing venues in Australian motorsport. But it’s going to take a real good crack at winning races to get them through.

For our Bulls, they each sit in varying situations. Will sits 5th in the standings, after a what he describes as a “scrappy” weekend on the Coast. Qualifying troubles meant that Will had to battle back – albeit something he does extremely well – and pass cars on his way back to 5th and 8th place finishes. Even some repayment from some Bathurst antics wouldn’t stop Will as he pushed hard from dead last on Saturday to claim the vital 5th place. Unfortunately for Will, those same heroics might not even be enough at Sandown. With only 4 spots left, and potentially two if race winners are from the current 7, chasing a podium has to be the minimum. However, Sandown sits as one of Will’s best. Claiming the last two pole positions and a huge 500 win last year with Scotty means form is strong, and with a fast car, everything is possible.

For Broc, a strong return to form was only halted by a pesky mozzie as he flew to back-to-back 2nd place finishes on the Gold Coast. As the clear points leader, Broc sits in the comfiest spot of all 7, as we head to somewhat of a Triple Eight favourite at Sandown. The return to the sprint format is clearly something of Broc’s liking – and being back at Sandown only helps. After an enduro win with JDub in the 500 in 2023 (we’ve done this before), it must be said that Broc is in a prime position to head to Adelaide and bring a championship home.

Sandown has the potential to provide some of the most classic highlights in recent memory, and it needs to be treated with caution. Whilst previous form may indicate a good weekend on paper, anything can happen, and there won’t be a second chance. Look for everyone in the 7 to be right up the pointy end, and plenty of others looking to play spoiler.

 

Hear more from our boys below as they push hard for a spot in the final 4 in Adelaide!

Will Brown
Driver #1 Chevrolet Camaro
Red Bull Ampol Racing

“Scrappy is probably a nice way to put it, to be honest. It was a very average showing on my behalf, I think, especially in qualifying. Not even just due to pace. I think we had the pace this weekend, and in the shootout, we were looking really good, but hit the fence, made a mistake, and, uh, did the same on Sunday, unfortunately. Pretty disappointed with the weekend as a whole. But as usual, we had really good race pace. We drove from last after being turned around back up to fifth, and from 18th back up to eighth. Obviously, our race pace is what’s helping us this year in getting us through. And feel like Sandown race pace is going to be a massive thing.”

“I do enjoy Sandown, I love that track. I’ve qualified on pole there for the last two years in a row for the Sandown 500, so I’m feeling fairly confident going into that round. I think that we can have a good showing and win a race there.”

“I think the Finals are living up to exactly what Supercars wanted them to, and that’s putting on a show that’s extremely exciting to watch but also puts us under a lot of pressure out there. I think we saw mistakes from teams and drivers due to that pressure. For myself, I’ve got to improve on what I did at Gold Coast and do a better job in the next couple of rounds. But it was good. Like I say, I think we’re fast at Sandown and Adelaide, so I think we can hopefully jump up into that top four and get through to the Finals.”

“It’s really hard to know how to race in these Finals because how you race someone is how you’re going to get raced back, so you don’t want to be too crazy because you probably need a few friends on your side going into Adelaide if you make it through. So, we’ll try to keep it clean, pass people as normal, race as normal, and get through to Adelaide that way.”

“I’m confident. It’s pretty tight between me, Matt Payne, Cam Waters, and even Chaz isn’t far away points-wise. I think that generally, looking at previous years, I don’t know if we can, but Triple Eight’s very strong there. We’ve been very strong there. So, it’s my most confident track. I knew going into Gold Coast that it would be our hardest track and that we really had to get through that round. But I think for us I’m feeling more confident going into Sandown than I was Gold Coast.”

Broc Feeney
Driver #88 Chevrolet Camaro
Red Bull Ampol Racing

“It was obviously exciting to get back home to the Gold Coast. We’d had a really tough enduro campaign, but I think our speed was there throughout those two races but we never actually got a good result on the board. Both of us walked away with zero podiums, which was pretty disappointing. But the Gold Coast was back to our sprint format. It was really important for me to get some good results, a bit of momentum back on our side and really just try and knuckle down and get through to the next round of the playoffs. So, to walk away with two second places is good, but not great.”

“We went there to win two races. Saturday, we got beaten fair and square. On Sunday, I felt like we did everything we could to win that race and still missed out on it at the end, which was a bit frustrating. So, there is still a lot to work on. I don’t go to races to come second, I go there to win, and we’ll try to do that at Sandown.”

“It’s actually really exciting, these Finals events. It was very hard to know what the Finals were going to be like. But speaking to a lot of people who are watching it, it’s quite exciting, and it’s another aspect that gets thrown into the mix and you see lots of positives and negatives with it. But I think the racing on the weekend was really exciting and I think that’s only going to get better throughout the Finals. It’s exciting to be a part of. However, for me, nothing really changes. You just go to the races, and you try and win, and if you do that, you’ll go to the next round. So although it was great to have the bonus points going into Gold Coast, we don’t have that for this next round. But the goal is to, as I said, go win races, go into Adelaide as hopefully the championship leader.”

“It certainly looks cool on TV (racing on the Gold Coast). It probably doesn’t feel that cool inside the cars or at least not for 85 laps. But it’s sort of monkey see, monkey do. You see one person take a little bit, then you try a little bit more and by the end of the weekend, we were just flying through the air. So, awesome TV, awesome footage. The views that everything’s got online has been incredible. But these cars certainly take a huge beating after that. They’re not made to fly, so a lot of work’s gone on in this short break to get them back to brand new for the next round.”

“It’s a cool thing about Gold Coast. We’ve got no other track, to be honest, probably in the world where cars like this do that. As I said, the reach that it got and the people that have sort of reached out and are liking videos and photos has been impressive. We won’t see that again for another 12 months but, if we do again, it will be pretty cool to be a part of it.”

“Looking forward to getting back to Sandown. It certainly has been a good Triple Eight track in the past, but that doesn’t really mean anything going there this year. It’s not just bolt in and you’ll be right up the front. We’ve got to work hard. We got beaten at the Gold Coast by a faster car, so we’ve got to be better there. But I think the track sort of suits our style of how we like to set up our cars, and I like the track. It’s one of my favorites, so I’m looking forward to it. I won there a couple of years ago and just came up short to Will last year. So, it’s been good for Triple Eight in the last couple of years, but yeah, looking forward to going there. This Finals series is heating up. Only four guys are going through to Adelaide, so it’s going to be important to win a race, score good points over the two races, and put ourselves in a good position.”

 

Racing at Sandown kicks off with two practice sessions on Friday at 1:05PM local time, before we find out our final 4 in Adelaide!

Sydney 500 – Practice, Qualifying & Race 1 Results

Will Brown – Car #1
Practice 1 – 12th (1:30.7310)
Qualifying (Race 1) – 11th (1:29.7708)
Race 1 – Fifth

Drivers’ Championship Standings – Fifth (57 points)

“I had a good start. My first lap wasn’t too bad. We sort of got in a really big battle with Ryan Wood and it was great racing, but unfortunately that hurts. Hurts your lap time, and it really hurts your tyres. So, we passed each other about four or five times.”

“But overall, we did a really good strategy. We put four tyres on in the stop and was able to come back through the field and finish fifth. So, for a very tough night like tonight, it’s a great recovery by the team and really happy with the strategy. The stop was really good by the boys.”

“We just need to have a good look at our car overnight, tune it up, tune myself up in qualifying and then have another crack tomorrow.”

Broc Feeney – Car #88
Practice 1 – 18th (1:30.9757)
Qualifying – Second (1:28.9452)
Race 1 (Race 1) – 14th

Drivers’ Championship Standings – 14th (27 points)

Teams’ Championship Standings – Third (84 points)

“Overall, to qualify front row, I think we did a really good job to maximize there. I got a good initial jump and then I think I hit the paint and wheel spun, but tried to settle into a rhythm pretty early, realized didn’t have the pace of Cam (Waters), and just tried to focus on our long run pace.”

“Unfortunately, on the lap that we were pitting, I had a slide and caught the edge at turn three and there’s a 30 centimetre drop off there and got a puncture. So, we went back to last, and got back to 14th. I’m pretty obviously gutted it was just a stupid mistake, but it’s just such a fine line out there. So anyway, I made a mistake, and I think we are the second-best car, but we’ve got a long way to go to catch Cam.”

“I think we’re all right. As I said, I think we were probably on for second. But Cam’s on another planet out there. They’ve done a fantastic job. Kudos to them. They’ve rolled out super strong, so we know where we can be, but we want to be able to fight for the win tomorrow night.”

 

Taupō Super 440 – Practice 1 & 2 Results

Will Brown – Car #1
Practice 1 – 10th (1:27.3582)
Practice 2 – 9th (1:26.4173)

Drivers’ Championship Standings – 1st (467 points)

“Yeah, we probably struggled a little bit today. We ended up at the back of the top ten, in both practice sessions. We’ve got a little bit of work to do overnight for myself and a little bit with the car as well. We had a good race here last year – a strong, competitive car – so I’m sure we’ll work it out and be able to qualify up there tomorrow.”

“I’m happy for it to be either, to be honest. I prefer it to be dry. We’ll be able to work that out and, and have a strong car in, in either condition regardless of the weather.”

Broc Feeney – Car #88
Practice 1 – 8th (1:27.2496)
Practice 2 – 11th (1:26.4818)

Drivers’ Championship Standings – 3rd (418 points)

Teams’ Championship Standings – 1st (615 points)

“It reminds me how hectic this place is and how challenging it is. I don’t think it’s very often you see so many people making so many mistakes. It’s such a challenging track, but that’s what makes it fun, all these surface changes with the new tyre. It’s been a challenging day, but it’s exciting. It mixes it up. It makes it super hard to get it right.

“We made some great changes today; we made some not-so-great changes so we’ll learn from that overnight. Everyone’s most likely going to say that, but I think we know where we need to be for tomorrow. “

“It’s so hard to even complete a lap without running off here and anyone that can manage a lap without making really any mistakes will be up the front. The Kiwis are going fast here, but for us we know where the time is, so we’re not too stressed. It’s just going to be about putting the lap down and qualifying when it counts”

 

Taupō Super 440 – Qualifying (Race 8 & 9) and Race 8 & 9 Results

Will Brown – Car #1

Qualifying (Race 8) – 13th (1:26.3027)
Qualifying (Race 9) – 5th (1:26.6138)
Race 8 – 5th
Race 9 – 7th

Drivers’ Championship Standings – 1st (573 points)

“We struggled in qualifying today, thirteenth in the first session then we were lucky to get through to the top ten and get the fifth in the next session.”

“That first race we were able to drive through the field and get back a couple places to fifth which I was pretty stoked about. I thought we might be able to do similar in the afternoon’s race, but just didn’t have the pace we wanted.”

“I don’t know what happened in the first stint but it was like we had blistered tires. But yeah, it just went backwards at a rate of knots and then we pitted real early, put another set on, were able to hang on until the end and bank some points in seventh place.”

“But yeah, just a bit of a struggle today. We’ve got a fair bit of work to do tonight so have a look at it, reevaluate and go from there. Tomorrow is a longer race so it’ll be interesting to see how the longer stints go. We’ve been doing a bit shorter stints today and yeah it’ll be interesting to see how we go tomorrow.”

Broc Feeney – Car #88
Qualifying (Race 8) – 11th (1:26.2613)
Qualifying (Race 9) – 3rd (1:26.5421)
Race 8 – 15th
Race 9 – 5th

Drivers’ Championship Standings – 3rd (500 points)

Teams’ Championship Standings – 3rd (1073 points)

“Qualifying was a bit of a mystery this morning. We struggled a lot in that first qualifying session and missed out on the shootout. We’ve probably never changed the car so much in a qualifying session but then to salvage third in Q2 was really good. We were on a used tire as well, so I think that was a really positive and we made a good step forward.”

“Then race one starting in the pack, we got caught up with the double stack, and then you’re just back in the pack again and we really struggled pace-wise towards the end of the stint. We just kept hitting the cliff at the end of our stint, we didn’t have the pace the other guys had, but then we’d hit a wall and the last five laps felt like it was raining.”

“That second race it would have been awesome to salvage something there. I was running second for the last few laps which was great, but once again that wall came to us and whenever I’d get in a battle with the other guys, I speared off the track, just trying to hang on.”

“So, it’s just been a really tough day but we’ll try and work on it tonight. I mean, we’re strong here last year but just trying to incorporate what we can do to make it better tomorrow.”

 

Tasmania Super 440 – Practice 1 & 2 Results

Will Brown – Car #1

Practice 1 – 12th (51.6054)
Practice 2 – 3rd (51.2578)

“The car is feeling competitive. We had a really good session in that second practice this afternoon. Running P1 for most of the session, didn’t get the best green run at the end and got caught up with a few cars. I probably put myself in some bad positions on track, but ended up P3 which is a good result. I know we can push up to the front now and I think the car is feeling really good heading into tomorrow.”

“For me, the key for qualifying in the morning is not making a mistake. Get myself in a good position out there to qualify as well as I can, get a good tow if possible and we’ll be all right.”

“Then for the two races tomorrow, I think it’s about having a good race car after a strong qualifying run, working out what won’t work in the race and making sure that we have tire life through the whole race, it’s going to be a big thing all weekend.”

Broc Feeney – Car #88
Practice 1 – 1st (51.3113)
Practice 2 – 1st (51.0887)

“After NZ, it’s been good to just roll out and be right at the front from the first outing in that first practice session, then we pretty much stayed there all day. It’s been really good to bounce back and have a good first Friday after the last round!”

“For me, really good practice one, then practice two, we probably struggled a little bit. I was just overdriving a little bit and then put it together at the end, so happy with that.”

“For qualifying tomorrow, it’s just super tight around here. It’s about just not making any mistakes and making small tweaks if we need them. But obviously, the tow is going to be pretty important, so I’ve got to think of some magic tonight to get some people passing me on the out lap. But overall, we’ve got a fast car, and I think we’re in a good spot at the moment. I’m very happy with how today has gone.”

“We just want to have two great qualifying sessions and be where we want to be. We just want to be consistent this whole weekend and try and execute. So, the goal is to start on the front row and go for the win. Ideally, we start at the front and just lead out the rest of the day and try and make it easy for ourselves.”

 

Ipswich Super 440 – Practice 1 & 2 Results

Will Brown – Car #1

Practice 1 – 6th (1:09.4670)
Practice 2 – 1st (1:08.4927)

“Coming to Queensland Raceway I was hoping that we were extremely competitive. Obviously it’s our test track so you would hope that we roll out fairly strong and I think we did that.”

 

“I think I struggled a little bit in practice one and even a little bit of the start of practice two. We did a lot on the car throughout to fine tune and get it right and I think we once we’d put all those changes together, took some bad ones out, put some more of the good ones in that we thought would help, then we were good to go. I think we had a really strong car in that last run, better than I even expected and to end up first in session two is awesome.”

 

“We’ve obviously had a little bit of a tough time on our side of the garage, and it’s only Friday, so you don’t win any trophies for Friday but definitely a positive end of the day. Looking forward to tomorrow.”

Broc Feeney – Car #88

Practice 1 – 1st (1:09.2078)
Practice 2 – 2nd (1:08.6346)

“Back at Queensland Raceway, I expected to roll out really strong here to be honest,
I would have been disappointed if we didn’t. Look, practice one wasn’t smooth but we we’re extremely fast, at one point by about two tenths. I had a couple of things to work on through that session so to see that pace was promising, and then practice two was pretty smooth after that.”

 

“It was really tight in practice two, both myself and Will got it up there not only on our green run but other runs around that as well.”

 

“Still a couple of things to work on with qualifying and racing tomorrow, but overall the Triple Eight cars as a whole – us and the Wildcard with Zach (Bates) – have had a fantastic day. Keeping an eye on the weather tomorrow. The last time I was here racing GT it was a wet weekend so maybe that helps a little bit knowing the lines, the way the puddles will set, but look we’ll see what happens. I mean, these are obviously very different to a GT car in the wet, no ABS, no traction controls, so we’ll see what we get.”

 

“To be honest, I’d be happy if it rains, but on the flip side I want it to be dry so we can get a big crowd out here this weekend. I’m up for both.”

 

The Bend 500 – Practice 1, 2 & 3 Results

Will Brown/Scott Pye – Car #1

Practice 1 – 18th (1:51.4439)
Practice 2 – 11th (1:51.3467)
Practice 3 – 1st (1:48.9957)

 

“So the last time we were here was 2023, which is actually the weekend that I announced that I was moving across to Red Bull Ampol Racing, so that’s a cool little memory from a couple of years ago.”

 

“But it was actually, to be honest, it was a fantastic Friday. Even though it was quite tough in the first practice and then again in Scott’s session we were just continually working on the car, trying to make it better. But straight when we got that new set of greens on the car it just came alive and we were able to put together a really good lap.”

 

“So stoked with where it ended up, but outside of that, I’ve got to try and understand why we’re off on the old rubber even though we’re on with the new ones. You know, we’ve done a lot of stops changing all four throughout the year where other people do just two per stop, so sometimes they have a bit better rubber when it comes to practice one and two.”

 

“Good to know how fast the car is when it grips up.
Hopefully, that last session and lap translates across to tomorrow with the sessions and qualifying. Hopefully, we can be up the front.”

“It feels good being back in the car. It’s been a big day, and great to see Will finish on top in the car which gives us confidence going into tomorrow.”

 

“Overall I’m really happy that we were finally on an event tire because I think there’s a big discrepancy between everything everyone was on there to start the week.
So it was a tricky day, but I’m glad we stuck to our guns and just backed ourselves today to get the result in the end.”

“It is only Friday, it’s only practice, but I think the great thing is we’re on the rubber for the weekend now so that should translate from today to tomorrow and Sunday pace wise. There were a lot of question marks around them coming in but now we’re all on them and we’re seeing how everyone performs.”

 

“But I think we just back ourselves in now. Credit to the boys and Andrew and Will who did a good job and now hopefully we can qualify well tomorrow, start at the pointy end come Sunday. But comfort wise and everything from the co driver’s perspective, I feel good. I’m looking forward to Sunday and before then I’ve got another co driver session tomorrow too, so looking forward to that.”

Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup – Car #88

Practice 1 – 12th (1:51.0469)
Practice 2 – 1st (1:50.5875)
Practice 3 – 2nd (1:49.3167)

 

“Having been here last week racing GT I felt on it straight away, my first lap we went P1 by a bit of a margin so I felt like it was certainly an advantage to be here last weekend, I felt on top of it.”

 

“The sessions, it sounds like a lot on paper, but I did two flying laps in the first session and then Jamie went in and it rained so it felt quite interrupted the first session and then you sit out for the second co-driver session. So it was good to do some more laps in practice three and even then you still had the safety car procedure. What I’m saying is a lot happened today. It’s been action packed for probably not too many laps done.”

 

“The good thing is we’ve rolled out, we’re competitive, overall in the end we’re second and a one two for the team which is great… but still plenty to work on.”

 

“I still feel like we’ve got a fair bit to work on but it’s good that the speed’s there, even though it doesn’t feel the best, it’s good to know that we’ve sort of got the speed at the moment. So look, I have no doubt everyone’s going to make a big jump overnight. We just need to make sure we can do that as well.”

“Today it was good to get more laps in, haven’t been in the car since the test day, but the more I’m behind the wheel the more comfortable I’m becoming.”

 

“I’m still very, very… you know, it’s not second nature. It’s still a really strange thing being back in it. In your head you sort of know the limits, so to speak, you can’t get there just because you don’t have the muscle memory because you haven’t done it for so long. It’s a little bit frustrating.
So I’m just trying to learn to just roll with it, try to enjoy it, not get frustrated by it, by not being as much of a perfectionist as what the main drivers are.”

 

“But at the same time, I’m working with Broc on the car. We’ve probably made the job a little harder for Marty today than we should have.
We’re both sort of saying different things and I can tell he’s in the middle of us both. So I think tomorrow’s focus is Broc and I working together on our feedback back to the team so they can help us get the most out of the car.”

 

“To have both Red Bull Ampol Racing cars at the top of the sheets in that final session is great for sure. Everyone showed their hand today and both cars were more than competitive, you know, car #1 was exceptional. That was under lap record. It’s unbelievable, really, where we were still under lap record pace but not as fast as car #1. Very, very happy with todays results for both cars.”

Bathurst 1000 – Practice 1 & 2 Results

Will Brown/Scott Pye – Car #1

Practice 1 – 7th (2:06.1009)
Practice 2 – 1st (2:06.8395)

“Coming off such a strong finish at The Bend, going into the first on track session of the week at Bathurst, to be honest, it’s probably the most confident I’ve felt rolling out at here Bathurst.
I feel like we had a good outing today, got some good data, made some good adjustments and overall put in some good laps.”

 

“I felt like practice one was really good for us. I think a few people threw rubber at it at the end, so it probably didn’t look as good as where we were, but I think the car has been good.”

 

“We’ve made some good changes between all of us in the garage to improve, and Scotty obviously did a fantastic job in his running to put his P1 in that session. So overall I think we’ve rolled out quite strong and hopefully we can just keep it there and keep fine tuning ahead of qualifying tomorrow and the business end over the weekend.”

“Definitely happy with the way the car was set up at the start of the day. I think the cars rolled out in a really good window and we’ve actually got a lot of scope for changes, I think that it’s a great place to start in preparation for the weekend.”

 

“We even made an improvement during my session before the rain came in, that was good to make a setup change and get some good feedback on that.
I feel positive after day one.”

 

“Whether it’s getting as many laps in a session as possible or getting some running time in the wet, for me it’s just about getting in quality laps no matter the conditions. Whether it’s the wet or the dry, it’s just about quality time on track and we felt that towards the end of that session, the risk versus reward was not really there for the amount we were going to learn from it so we parked it.”

 

“I think we got a lot out of the start of the session, and the main thing is that when the car’s in a window it builds confidence for me, and its really Andrew and Will working so well together to get to a goal. That goal is to be over the next four practice sessions improving the car speed and then come Sunday I’ll do my job. There’s still plenty of opportunity during the week and leading into the weekend to get more laps in and get ready.”

Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup – Car #88

Practice 1 – 5th (2:05.9879)
Practice 2 – 8th (2:08.2580)

“I think it was a pretty good day, we were pretty fast out the gate, we’ve probably put a bit more focus on the race car. So good to see in practice today and then again hopefully tomorrow it’s really good in different conditions and while we’re running it differently whether it’s setting up or running different types of laps.”

“Felt like it was a bit interrupted in the first session, and it was again in the second session. We were sort of P1 and then a couple guys did some rubber changes and kept running until then end which saw the order change up.”

“We put Jamie in and he got up to speed really quick. So the car feels good, all in all a good package for our first day on track. Obviously, we’ve got to make some improvements, but I think as a day one car we’ve rolled out really strong.”

“It’s weird to think that we are qualifying tomorrow on a Friday.
But it’s still two sessions in the morning and having seen what we did today maybe we lean towards working on a race car tomorrow morning between Jamie and I. Then I think the latter part of the fourth practice session and going into qualifying it’s definitely going to be focused on making sure we’re in that top ten.”

“You get I think it’s a forty-minute qualifying session so there’s plenty of time to do heaps of laps, tune it up and get it right. You just need to be a little bit comfortable, just keep chipping away on, preparing for the big one which is Sunday.”

Bathurst 1000 – Practice 3, 4 & Qualifying Results

Will Brown/Scott Pye – Car #1

Practice 3 – 3rd (2:05.0547)
Practice 4 – 13th (2:05.0214)
Qualifying – 12th (2:04.3187)

“So, not the not the best day. Qualifying here at Bathurst… we were looking not too bad up until probably the end of practice four. We knew we had a little bit of work to do but I think we did that going into qualifying, going into the start of that session. Unfortunately we just didn’t have the pace… it’s tight out there, two tenths to pole.”

“Everyone’s doing such a good job and unfortunately we were just really on the wrong side of the top ten. I feel like we’ve got to do a little bit better job, but it didn’t feel so bad, it just wasn’t fast enough.”

“So we’ll start the Great Race from P12, sort out our Sunday as best we can. It’s all about Sunday. Still not a good spot to start, but it’s all about Sunday. You can win it from P12, there’s no doubt about that, but we’ve definitely made our life harder for Sunday. We’ll work through it and try to win the race.”

“The car felt as good this morning rolling out as it did yesterday when we put it on P1 in practice. It was tricky yesterday for me because the conditions were… it was a very narrow, dry line, quite tricky conditions, but I felt like we rolled out in a really good place again today.”

“Myself and Jamie were quite close with times and we did the early running in the first practice session this morning. But ultimately I handed the car over pretty early in the day to Will and Andrew to do their thing and focus on getting the car balanced for qualifying.”

“That qualifying, it was just crazy close. Watching it from my point of view as co-driver, blown away with how close it was. I don’t think anyone’s car out there is going to be feeling too bad, it just might be the wrong side of the top ten. So disappointed ultimately with the result, we’re not in the top ten, we’re not in the shootout, but for me now I just need to focus on race car tomorrow again, get back into it and then whoever it is we need to try and have some kind of spectacular opening stint and first half of the race.”

“We’ll talk tactics tomorrow, probably tomorrow night, because we will still wait for the shootout to see how it goes.
We have the luxury of being able to get into that part of the strategy chat early as a group on Car #1 and start talking our options. Ultimately the plan is just going to be to get as far forward as possible and whatever we think gives us the best opportunity to do that early, we’ll take.”

Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup – Car #88

Practice 3 – 1st (2:04.9763)
Practice 4 – 9th (2:04.9255)
Qualifying – 2nd (2:04.0371)

“We’ve had a pretty good day,
pretty quick in the first session, probably a little bit further off the pace in the second practice session, but our goal hasn’t really been just being fast. We’ve been focusing on our race car and it was good to bolt some greens on at the end of the last practice and see we have good speed.”

“So the car is fast, but I didn’t do the best job in qualifying there. So just looking forward to the shootout tomorrow, but probably more so looking forward to continue working on the race car to get it ready for Sunday.”

“So, a really tight top ten lap time wise, it was extremely close. It’s probably as close as it’s ever been. Felt like we had a pretty good margin before that last run and we just weren’t able to improve. So looking forward to having another crack tomorrow. So much fun doing qualifying around here and shootouts are even better.”

“So the car came out really good for me today, I enjoyed doing my laps this morning. I couldn’t fault the car at all.
There’s all a few things we’re going to work on to try to make it faster on Sunday. But as I said in the press, we did a good job, did a similar time on the same rubber so I’m thinking I’m there or thereabouts. As the day goes on you see the data, the delta between Broc’s quickest and it gives you the insights you needs to go quicker.”

 

“Looking at Sunday, it’s going to be a belter right from the start. We saw that last year, it’s flat out, it’s so close and everyone’s going for it, it’s that tight. There’s no conserving, no looking after the brakes. You got to get there as quick as you can and get on with it. So we’re not sure who’s starting at this stage. I think there’ll be a bit of a mix between co and main drivers.”

 

“Whatever Marty decides I’ll be ready to go and looking forward to the challenge. It’s a big challenge, it’s the biggest race the year, but I’ll I can guarantee one thing and then I’ll give it 3000%.”

Bathurst 1000 – Practice 5, 6 & Top Ten Shootout Results

Will Brown/Scott Pye – Car #1

Practice 5 – 1st (2:05.6647)
Practice 6 – 19th (2:06.8727)

 

“Today Scotty did an amazing job in the co-driver session. I think he did an awesome job in his race run and from what we saw on track and on the screen he was very competitive. So hopefully we can have a great first stint tomorrow whoever is driving, knowing the car is set up nearly ready to go. But for me, we jumped in this afternoon at noon and it was a little bit hotter.
Felt like the car isn’t in a bad window, but we got a little bit of work to do to tune up tomorrow in the warm up.”

 

“Not being in the shootout was disappointing, silver lining I guess we didn’t do any green runs, we weren’t concentrating on one lap pace, so we were just able to focus on setting up the car for race pace which was great. But I’d love to be in the shootout, it’s the best time of the year, best session of the year the shootout. Disappointing not to be in it.”

 

“Looking ahead to Sunday there’s a lot of noise about the weather and some wet racing. Weather will be what it will be, we drive to the conditions, bring on the race.”

“Really solid day, very happy with our race pace. Unfortunately, not making it into the shootout is disappointing, but it also means you have the ability to focus on race pace which for us today was our main focus.”

 

“I think that we ticked some boxes and found a setup that we could be confident going in to tomorrow with, and as a co-driver, I feel really prepared.”

 

“I got a lot of racing laps today in practice, and race simulation laps, then a quick run at the end on some used rubber, but ultimately I’m going in to tomorrow now with a lot of confidence. Looking forward to 161 laps after morning warm up.”

Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup – Car #88

Practice 5 – 2nd (2:05.7089)
Practice 6 – 1st (2:04.9698)
Top Ten Shootout – 5th (2:04.5940)

 

“Today, so Jamie did some laps this morning while we were getting the car race ready, making sure we’re both as comfortable and happy as we can be. Then I got in and tried working on the race car a little bit as well, then had a couple of quick laps at the end and felt quite competitive.”

“That shootout, it wasn’t my best lap. That’s it, to be honest didn’t do my best lap there.”

“The race, looks like it’s going to rain at some point, so we’re still working on scenarios and final touches on the race car I think. We’ve worked on it a lot this week, and I just feel like we’ve been missing a little bit of something, somewhere. We’ve got a couple of changes we’ll try, we’re pretty confident in that process and it should help us find what we’re looking for and looking to take to track some Sunday.”

“Goal is still to be top step of the podium Sunday afternoon. We’re in it, we’re in a position to do it, we’ll put out best race together on Sunday.”

“The car today, we worked on it. We had two duties, because we’re in the shootout we had to work on the shootout car plus the race car. Qualifying set up was good, we’re just very, very unsure about the car for the race. 
Both of us aren’t that happy. So we’ve got to work out what we think we can do and try a few things in the warm-up.”

 

“The main focus of the day was that dual set up.
We can’t neglect the shootout, but we wanted to work on the race car. So we tried and got after it but we’re not as happy as we would like to be, to be honest. I think we’ll keep it at small steps.”

 

“The thing is though, we all have in the back of our mind that any set up done now might be all somewhat irrelevant because I’m pretty sure that the end of the race is going to be wet.
So it’s tricky, too tricky to decide what to do. We’ll use the time we’ve got available on Sunday morning to do what we can. We’ll make the call at the last minute when we get the best idea of the weather, because it was not that bad at the start of the week… but it was real bad yesterday and now it’s starting to slightly get better. So we might wake up in the morning and change again till we’ll see.”