Brown Spun to Third in Sprint Cup Finale

Will Brown has claimed third place in the inaugural Supercars Sprint Cup after being tipped into a spin that left him languishing at the back of the field in Sunday’s race.

Race 23 - P4

Brown started the weekend strongly, locking in his first front-row start since Tasmania with a strong drive to second on the grid. He started the race started well, challenging teammate and pole-getter Broc Feeney for the lead in the damp on the opening lap, but the slippery surface eventually bit back, with a wide moment at the final corner allowing Kai Allen and Ryan Wood to slip past into the podium places.

A later pit stop for fresh tyres was a gamble worth making, but it went unfulfilled when a late safety car called off his chase with three laps to go just as he closed on Wood’s rear bumper in the battle for third, with the race ending under caution.

Race 24 - P1

A competitive third on the grid was immediately converted into second on the road thanks to a strong start, keeping Brown with leader Feeney in the first stage of the race. Second place became the lead when the sister car was penalised for jumping the start, promoting Brown into a race-winning position after his pit stop with 14 laps to go.

Brown rejoined with a three-second buffer to Feeney, but the gap rapidly closed as the leader brought his tyres up to temperature, setting up a long defensive slog to the chequered flag. But the reigning champion absorbed the pressure flawlessly to claim his second victory of the season by just 0.884 seconds.

Race 25 - P23

Brown started Sunday strongly, with another shootout appearance converted into another third on the grid, which he ably held off the line until lap 4, when a monster moment of wheelspin in heavy rain down the front straight cost him a position to Brodie Kostecki. A stop on lap 20 undercut Brown back into third place, but a safety car on lap 31 for the stranded Cameron Crick promoted three drivers who hadn’t yet stopped to the head of the field, demoting him to sixth.

Ryan Wood then tipped him into a spin in a battle for fifth for which the Kiwi was later penalised, but it sent Brown pirouetting to the back of the field, ruining his race. He crossed the line 18th, but a post-race penalty for spinning his wheels during a pit stop demoted him a further five places to 23rd and dropped him to third on the title table.

“I felt like we were pretty strong this weekend. Obviously having three top-three qualifying results was pretty good. I got a second and two thirds in qualifying, which really was a lot better than we’ve been qualifying over the last couple of rounds. But unfortunately, to be honest, we had stronger race pace at the other rounds when we didn’t qualify as good, so we’ve got a little bit of work to do.

“A fourth place first up on Saturday — it went a bit begging because of the water on the track. But then getting a win later that day was great. Sunday’s race was a bit disappointing. Obviously me and Woody [Ryan Wood] got into it, and he turned me around — not much you can do there. It’s just one of those things that will happen every now and then in racing.

“I’ve just got to push on to the endurance championship. I want to have this as a bit of a reset, the next four weeks, and just get ready. We haven’t had the best run on my side of the garage. We’re just not where we want to be.”

Round 9 of the Supercars Championship takes place on 12–14 September with the Bend 500 at the Bend Motorsport Park.