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!