Supercars makes its big return to Queensland Raceway after a six-year absence. And although we might be regulars at the joint, the Paperclip could offer up some of the best racing of the year so far!

So, what’s changed since 2019? Well, almost everything. JDub’s found himself a taller and more important chair to sit in, SVG’s gone to race in circles, and our two Championship points leaders were running around in Super2 and Super3. Our mask wearing is done and dusted (who could forget?), and TQ has jumped in at QR and made the place a real destination for South-East Queensland motorsport. We are also racing a brand-new version of Supercar, not bad.

That’s a few changes. So what makes the return to QR so special? Mainly the obvious – someone will be crowned the inaugural Sprint Cup Champion. We also might be a little biased when it comes to making a pick, but we’ve got a strong feeling the #88 or the #1 will be in with a shot. How exciting! The race to be Sprint Cup champ will be crowned after another busy Super 440 weekend, with two chaotic sprint races on Saturday, followed by the big one on Sunday. 

Will Brown
Driver #1 Chevrolet Camaro
Red Bull Ampol Racing

“I can’t wait, it’s my first real home round. I raced Super2 here in about 2017 or ’18. But apart from that, I haven’t raced Supercars around Ipswich, so I’m looking forward to it. Every time I’ve ever been here, the crowd has been massive. So I think it’ll be an awesome turnout, especially after a few years off.”

“Obviously, for us, this is our test track now with Triple Eight. So hopefully, we can be quite strong here and have a bit of a bounce back. I feel like Townsville was a bit stronger on my side – I felt pretty good in the races, so I just need to bounce back around here with qualifying. The racing is going to be interesting – it’s not the most technical track, but it’s still hard to be fast on, and to make passes. So it will be interesting, racing will be the one thing to watch to see if there’s any tyre degradation or how you make passes here. We’ll get out there, get our elbows out and see what it’s like.”

“I only heard the other week that the Superbikes were here, and it’s great to have them back. They were a great addition to our sport a few years back in Darwin, and a lot of people came out to watch. So to have them racing with us, I know I’m keen to watch it as well. And it brings something else to the weekend. There are some bike fans who will come out and also enjoy Supercars, and vice versa. I think I bought 52 Sunday tickets for this weekend, so I’ve got a lot of mates coming out on Sunday. Everyone’s keen to come out, it’s only about an hour down the road for everyone, so they’re all looking forward to it.”

Broc Feeney
Driver #88 Chevrolet Camaro
Red Bull Ampol Racing

“I’m just super excited to be back here. Considering we haven’t been here for six years, and the effort Tony (Quinn) and the team at Queensland Raceway have put into it, I think it’s gonna be a fantastic event. A lot of local fans of the team, as well as friends and family, will finally be able to get here and watch me race. I’m excited; it’s the final round of the Sprint Cup, and I’m looking to wrap that up and go for more wins.”

“For sure, we’re starting to prepare for the enduros. Jamie (Whincup) and I are already starting to work together and plan ahead. But for me, we’ve been on a really good roll, and it’s about trying to keep that going. As I’ve said before, the 25 bonus points that come with the Sprint Cup are huge, and we still want to keep extending our lead and trying to build that points advantage.”

“So the goal is to try and, as per usual, win three races. Darwin’s sort of the only one that we’ve done it, but at all the last three rounds, apart from Darwin, we’ve won two out of three races. It’s been a really strong stretch for us, but I’m looking forward to getting back to QR and trying to go for three more wins.”

There’s plenty to watch and follow across the weekend: Two-wheel action joins the card with the Australian Superbike Championship, a serious spectacle to keep your eyes on as a four-wheel fan! Our young guns hit the track for the 4th round of Super2, followed by a smorgasbord of support category racing!

It’s always a good time when you know Supercars are headed up north to Townsville: universally well liked, and one for a bit of chaos, the Reid Park circuit always throws down some of the year’s great racing.

For 2025, there is much more weight upon these three races in the ‘Ville. For some, the precious bubble of the Sprint Cup top ten will force them to ride the wave much longer than 8 seconds. It will be a fascinating watch as we round off the inaugural final Sprint Cup rounds of 2025 in Townsville, and with our return to Ipswich.

But in reality, the rest can wrestle each other around as much as they like, ‘cause our Bulls sit in the grandstands, watching the chaos unfold. Broc and Will sit 1st and 2nd in the standings, with a box seat as we head to the enduro season. Wills has been out wrangling his NASCAR around the streets of Chicago, while BFeen amasses his greatest campaign so far in his short career.

Broc’s incredible string of form is something to behold. It is rare to snap 4 pole positions in a row, yet across the Melbourne GP weekend, and Perth – Darwin, Broc has chalked up 2 occasions of 4 in a row. To reinforce how rich of a vein of form Broc has tapped into, he sits on 5 consecutive race wins. Talk about taming the Bulls. It’s a run of form that sees him up 183 points over Will, and an almost lock-in for being the first Sprint Cup champion, and the first to lock in his slot in The Finals.

Will is a fighter. Whilst not emulating the podium streaks of 2024, his ability to drive the car up the field is impressive. And after a new challenge and a reset stateside, Will is itching to get to Townsville and remind everyone that 2024 was no fluke. An impressive drive from 13th to 3rd last year shows Will know show to get it done, and there is no one keener than us to see him whip it this weekend.

We are extremely excited to see what kind of ride Reid Park has in store for our Bulls this weekend – but head below to hear the boys thoughts on the turn around after Darwin, and the weekend to come:

Will Brown
Driver #1 Chevrolet Camaro
Red Bull Ampol Racing

“I think there’s always things that are that are going to correlate over from the NASCAR Cup car. They’re a very similar car of what we have. The simulator has been amazing. I’ve got a lot more time on it over here than I thought I would. I thought we were going to get about one to one-and-a-half hours, and I think we probably had ten or more hours on it.”

“Usually for myself between Darwin and Townsville, I don’t really get any time driving a car. So, to be over here racing Chicago, doing ten hours on the simulator is only going to be a gain, and there’s a lot of learning for us. But it’s just maximizing your car, feeling it out. Chicago is a very similar street circuit to what we race back at home. There are a few things that are going to benefit me racing in Chicago.”

“It’s cool that we are crossing over. It’d be great to have someone from NASCAR come down and race in our category. And it’d be awesome to run the two categories on one weekend and see what the racing’s like compared to each other on the same track and all that sort of stuff.”

“I’m looking forward to getting into the Enduros. Scott did a great job last year to help us get those results, and this year I feel like we are fast enough to compete for wins. I’d love to win Bathurst. That’s the ultimate goal. We will work hard to get ready for both The Bend and Bathurst, but hopefully, we can have a really solid Townsville and lead into the enduro season strong.”

Broc Feeney
Driver #88 Chevrolet Camaro
Red Bull Ampol Racing

“I’m really looking forward to Townsville because we probably struggled a little bit there last year. It was sort of the first bump on the road for us in the middle part of the season. For me, it’s an exciting prospect to go back there and try and really get on top of things. It’s one of three tracks that I haven’t won yet in Supercars. It’s certainly one that I absolutely love, but it’s one that I want to win at. My form has been good lately. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to roll out perfectly in Townsville, but the trajectory that we’re on and how our car is working, hopefully it suits the track.”

“I haven’t changed my prep in quite a while.  I just kept evolving over the last couple of years, and I’m just sort of consistent in what I do before each weekend, the same as usual. Going back through last year’s notes and just preparing as best as I can for this year. But I’m doing heaps of sim racing and all that sort of stuff. I’m not racing before Townsville, so I’ve got a couple of weeks off, which I think is good.”

“It’s sort of like a little mid-season ‘rest and recover’ for the back half of the year because it’s going to be huge. I’ll be sim racing heaps and trying to keep my eye in for these couple of weeks. And more importantly, cheering on the Aussies in America in between rounds.”

“I want the 25 extra playoff points at the end of the Sprint Cup. That’s what I’m going for now. I’m not going to go championship racing; I’m going out there to try and win three more races in Townsville. But I want to try and wrap up that Sprint Cup in Ipswich in a month and get those extra playoff points.”

“Up until Ipswich, we haven’t really changed how we think about this championship, but I suppose now everyone’s starting to talk about the final series, and it is becoming more of a real thing. So, for me, it’s not going to change how I approach the next couple of rounds. I want to keep winning. You’re going to have to keep winning all year. We’ll just try and keep the momentum rolling that we’ve got at the moment, and hopefully that brings some race wins in Townsville.”

On-track action in Townsville begins begins 9:20AM AEST bright and early with the first of two 30-min practice sessions on Friday. With support from our Triple Eight young guns Jackson and Ben in Dunlop Super2 and more, it’s going to be a thrilling weekend in Townsville!

Townsville 500 – Practice 1 & 2, Qualifying & Race 20 Results

Will Brown – Car #1

Practice 1 – 6th (1:13.9508)
Practice 2 – 9th (1:13.5288)
Qualifying (Race 20) – 20th (1:13.3929)
Race 20 – 10th

“Coming back from the US and that NASCAR seat then straight back into my Supercar for this weekend I felt pretty back. Like, probably halfway through the first practice session I felt really back in the groove.”

“At times we weren’t too bad straight out of the gate in practice, practice and qualifying but then had a very average qualifying session and result, very disappointing. Not exactly sure why yet but we need to work it out for the two long races this weekend.”

“The first, the shorter one, had an awesome race out there. Had a lot of fun getting back up to 10th from where I started at the back, but you know, 10th isn’t where we want to be finishing. We passed ten cars in the race, which I guess is promising, shows the pace is there and we can race, but to be honest, we know we have a strong car. But if you’re starting that far back you’re not going to win the race. We’re here to try to win races.”

Broc Feeney – Car #88

Practice 1 –2nd (1:13.7128)
Practice 2 – 2nd (1:13.1539)
Qualifying (Race 20) – 14th (1:13.1492)
Race 20 – 8th

“First street circuit in a while and I think we started the day actually quite good. In practice this morning, we were fastest on lap one, and then we finished it in P2, and I feel like pace wise maybe we’ve been P2 all day to be honest, except for that second part of qualifying. But it was fun all day, I enjoy driving around here, but we just missed the mark a little bit in that second run of qualifying, which doesn’t set you up for the race really well. That qualifying session… first run was more competitive, the car felt good and then it just didn’t grip up on that second run. We ended up where we ended up. It’s a shame because I felt like we’ve sort of been in that top three fight all day.”

“Then the race was pretty wild. Got a good start, got up to I think 10th on the first lap and then probably played the game strategy wise hoping for a safety car. So might have been able to get a few more, but sort of waited for a safety car that didn’t come then we took the four tyres hoping for a strong finish.”

“But overall, not a bad day. The car came out somewhat clean from it all. Had some pretty hard racing out there with some of the boys so to come out clean with the two bigger races on the weekend is a good thing. Overall, we’ve just got to fix up that little part in qualifying and then go for it.”

Townsville 500 – Qualifying, Top Ten Shootout & Race 21 Results

Will Brown – Car #1

Qualifying (Race 21) – 2nd (1:12.7202)
Top Ten Shootout – 8th (1:13.2018)
Race 21 – 4th

“Car came out fast this morning, faster than yesterday so appreciate the work the team did overnight on it, then we qualified P8 which is an improvement but still not up where we need to be to fight at the front.”

“Had a crazy race at the start there, got hit pretty hard in to turn one and that put us back a few positions which was disappointing. There was a lot of elbows out racing from the start, feels like everyone got caught up in their own little bumps with someone else. Sorry to Will, we came together there, I tried to switch back in a corner that and got the curb then damaged his car when I ran back on. So that was disappointing, I got a five second penalty for that which was deserved and then was able to drive it back up to fourth.”

“Felt like we had the fastest car out there, to be honest. It was a great car, and we had very good pace. Saying that, you know, can’t do a trick right at the moment but yeah, good to know we’ve got the car speed under us.”

“Tomorrow will be good. We’ve just got a qualify well, get up the front, get in that top three, and we’ll race well. I’m just going to go get myself back up there, came close today but need to be back on the podium.”

Broc Feeney – Car #88

Qualifying (Race 21) – 8th (1:12.9906)
Top Ten Shootout – 3rd (1:12.9488)
Race 21 – 1st

“This morning, I still felt like we struggled a little bit in the first parts of qualifying. I just wasn’t getting the feeling that I wanted out of the car and just really struggled at the start of the lap. And, yeah, we still got it into the shootout which was good and then we made a change before I went out and the car really felt like it hooked up, just sort of struggled once again in the first couple of corners, but, yeah after that we were on. Felt like we could’ve pushed for pole.”

“I knew from third we could win today. The start was alright, but then dropped back to fourth. After some hard racing we managed to get back up to second before the safety car. Then once again, boys nailed the pit stop and we were able to get out in front and that was the crucial part of our race.”

“I don’t think I was the fastest car in that middle stint, but I was just able to sort of manage it until those last 10 laps and then build a gap and it just felt like as the race went on, our car got better and better and better. So to walk away with the win today is super special.
I mean, the turnaround from yesterday was huge. I felt like I might have been out of fight for a podium yesterday, but definitely not a win, so absolutely chuffed to walk away with a big belt today.”

Townsville 500 – Qualifying, Top Ten Shootout & Race 22 Results

Will Brown – Car #1

Qualifying (Race 12) – 5th (1:12.7996)
Top Ten Shootout – 7th (1:13.6137)
Race 22 – 2nd

“Still not happy with qualifying, just disappointed at another shootout lap that wasn’t pulled together completely, something we need to look at even more now. 
Probably comes back a little on myself to be honest. Today I probably had a better car than where I ended up in qualifying and when that happens it just puts you back in the pack and then I had to do so much work to get back to Broc who’s at the front.”

“I really wanted to try and win a race just for my side of the garage but in trying as hard as I did to get there I just burnt my tyres up. So I just feel like it’s been a tough couple of rounds. It is great to get back on the podium but I’ve still got a bit of work to do. We’ll keep building and we are trending up.”

“Looking forward to getting to the Enduros soon and Bathurst, that’s one thing that I’m looking forward to. But one more Sprint round race at Queensland Raceway to go strong at, try and get second in the Sprint Cup then see what happens from there.”

Broc Feeney – Car #88

Qualifying (Race 22) – 4th (1:12.7810)
Top Ten Shootout – 1st (1:12.9536)
Race 22 – 1st

“We’re rolling on, it was a pretty awesome day. From lap one in qualifying the car felt really good. We didn’t change the car at all through qualifying or shootouts. So once again I was able to pull a shootout lap out of my arse and get on pole by three tenths which was awesome.”

“And then, look, the race was pretty much all going to plan except watching Will, who was super fast, coming at me. I knew pretty early in the race that he was going to be the one that I was battling and he chased me down in the second stint then even more in the last stint. Just by the time he got to me he’d obviously run out of tyres.”

“But I I’m absolutely chuffed to walk away with the win there, it’s awesome, that one means a lot. Awesome result for the team with the 1-2, but for me chuffed with this weekend. The turnaround has been fantastic and can’t wait to get to Queensland Raceway.”