Will Secures Runner-Up Finish in Supercars Grand Final

Will Brown has ended his title defence second on the championship table in a chaotic final race at the Adelaide Grand Final.

Race 32: P9

After a promising pair of top-10 results in the weekend’s two practice sessions, Will suffered another disappointing qualifying outcome when a flurry of late improvements from rivals dumped him out of the grid-setting session in 12th for the first race of the triple-header weekend.

But the bigger blow came on the first lap of the chaotic wet-weather race when he was tagged by an errant Thomas Randle at the hairpin. The No. 1 Camaro was tipped into a spin that sent Will to the back of the pack on a day his fellow title contenders all finished inside the top five.

It was a devastating whack, but treacherously wet conditions aided Will to a typically heroic recovery. He passed 16 cars in 20 laps to set himself up for a big points finish, but a heavy crash for Randle had the race called off and classified after 21 of 32 laps, ending the mighty comeback and limiting the damage to his title defence.

Race 33: P4

Saturday qualifying heralded much more positive results, with Will qualifying sixth to earn his first shootout appearance since the Gold Coast. His single flying lap put him fifth on the grid, with improving track conditions after Friday’s rain helping those who came later in the running order.

Holding fifth off the line, he picked off two places to run third in the opening stint, and a lap-21 stop — early among the frontrunners — had him back in that position by the end of his second stint.

His final stop came on lap 47, but the service was slow, with a reduced fuel rate holding him in his box for longer than planned. The problem dropped him into direct conflict with the recovering Chaz Mostert, who won their dice with fresher tyres on lap 57 to drop Will off the podium and leave him fourth at the flag in a tough result for his title defence.

Race 34: P3

Will made a second shootout appearance on Sunday, qualifying eighth and securing the same position in the single-lap session. Another solid start allowed him to move forwards in the first stint, picking off cars until he was fifth before taking his first service at the end of lap 21.

Dropping to 16th, the early stop undercut him up to third by the end of his second stint, and he banked those gains with another early stop, this time on lap 48. Returning to third place once the stop window closed, he kept up the pressure on Mostert ahead, but in an uneventful final phase of the race he took the chequered flag in the final podium place, his title defence vanquished.

“Friday was disappointing day — a really disappointing day. Obviously terrible qualifying again, which just doesn't let you start the race the way you want and puts you on the back foot straight away — and when we're back in the pack, there's risk of getting caught up, and that's what happened. Qualifying was much better on Saturday, with fifth in the shootout, and getting into the race I got not too bad a start, moving up to third at one stage, but then I could see we just didn't have the pace towards the end no matter how hard we fought. Chaz got me, then it was all about keeping Kai (Allen) behind me. Sunday — a bit happened at the start. I had to focus on my race, but that was disappointing to see on lap one. I feel for the team today. We finished on the podium. That's a nice way to end the season, but it's not the way we wanted to finish up. We were in it until the end and wanted it, but we didn't get it. We've not had the best season, there have been things we've needed to fight through and things to work on for next season, but to come in to the first year of the finals and get all the way to the end like we did is a plus."