Brown Through to Sandown Semi Final After Front-Row Start and Top-Six Finish on the Gold Coast
Will Brown has secured his place in the Supercars Finals Series Semi Final at Sandown after a testing weekend at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500, finishing sixth in Race 31 and starting from the front row in Race 32. Heavy rain through the week made for a challenging opening round of the Finals, and Brown leaves Surfers Paradise fifth in the standings with the #87 Ford Mustang showing real speed in the dry.
Race 31 - P6
The #87 Ford Mustang rolled out on Friday with good pace in the garage and fast times in practice and qualifying, with Brown qualifying seventh and holding that position through the Saturday Top 10 Shootout. He started the race a few spots further back than the team had hoped, and in the wet conditions that followed the Mustang was not as quick as Brown wanted. He worked through the field to take a sixth-place finish and valuable Finals points.
Race 32 - P11
Sunday brought a completely different story in qualifying, with the #87 Ford Mustang fast from the start of the day. Brown qualified second and went into the Top 10 Shootout watching the weather closely, posting a 1:15.5191 that was fastest with one runner left to go. He was ultimately beaten to pole by the narrowest of margins and lined up on the front row. A solid start put Brown in the leading group at the front of the field, but early in the first stint the Mustang began to lose time. He dropped back through the race to finish 11th, and the Red Bull Ampol Racing crew will now analyse the issue that cost the team pace.
Despite the disappointment of Race 32, the weekend delivered what Brown needed most. He is through to the next seven at Sandown, and while he has slipped from third to fifth in the Finals standings, he remains firmly in the fight for a place in the decider in Adelaide. The short turnaround will give the team a chance to build on the Mustang's one-lap speed and dig into the performance issues from the weekend, with Brown and the crew encouraged by their strong results at Sandown in recent years.
“You take the positives away and we're through to the next seven at Sandown, we're still in the Finals even though we've dropped back from third to fifth we're still in it. We've had good success at Sandown lately, last year the car was a rocket, so we'll attack it again, work hard and make sure we're there at the end in Adelaide.”
The 2026 Supercars Championship resumes at the Sandown 500 on 6–8 November.