Brown win completes Triple Eight’s perfect weekend

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: 25 February 2024

Will Brown has completed Triple Eight Race Engineering’s perfect weekend by overcoming Chaz Mostert in a tight three-horse race in the Bathurst 500 finale.

Brown’s sixth career win and first in Triple Eight colours meant the Red Bull Camaros topped all eight on-track sessions in the 2024 Supercars season opener from Friday morning practice to Sunday afternoon racing.

Despite Mostert getting off to a flying start and controlling most of the race, a shorter fuel stop on lap 29 allowed car #87 to leap ahead of car #25 in the lane.

Mostert pushed hard early in the final stint but ultimately had to settle for second 1.5s behind Brown, who is now the championship leader after pole sitter Broc Feeney, who finished third, having been impacted by a 5s penalty for divebombing James Golding at The Chase.

Thomas Randle put in an impressive drive to rise from seventh to fourth as Golding completed the top five.

“This means a lot,” Brown said.

“To get a pole and a win in my first weekend with my new team I am absolutely stoked.

“It was pretty hard out there with Chaz pushing me along but I was able to save my tyres and get home at the end.”

Ford in front

Chaz Mostert leads the way as Cam Hill spins in the background. Image: Peter Norton

For the second race in a row Mostert nailed the start and this time there were no Red Bulls in the road to slow him down.

As a result he sailed into the lead and made the most of it, opening up more than a second within a lap over Golding, who also got a good jump, while Feeney slotted into third ahead of Brown.

Everything was happening behind Mostert with drama arriving even before the first corner.

Ryan Wood, Richie Stanaway and Cameron Hill were going three wide towards the Hell Corner braking zone and a squeeze between the trio led to Hill being fired into the left front of Wood.

The second point of contract left both Hill and Wood badly beaten up and the pair were soon in the garage.

Up front Feeney was desperate to recover from a poor start from pole and launched a counterattack on Golding for second at The Chase.

But the #88 locked up and carried too much speed, forcing both of them to take to the grass.

Whilst Feeney escaped without damage retaining third as the seas parted for Brown to take second, Golding was the big loser dropping from second to eighth.

As a result car #88 was slapped with a 5s penalty and even Jamie Whincup saw it coming.

Rookie Aaron Love was running a solid 12th only to lose it by losing the rear and whacking the wall under “the tree”.

In the hot conditions many drivers struggled to stay on the tarmac with Cam Waters and David Reynolds also going off at The Chase.

Despite opening up a second early on, Mostert’s advantage vanished by lap 3, with just a second splitting the leading trio.

All of this happened inside the opening five laps, setting the scene for a fascinating race.

Triple Eight’s strategy smarts

WAU pit crew had to put on a slightly used front right rather then fresh one in the stop where Mostert lost the lead to Brown. Image: Peter Norton

Nothing separated Mostert, Brown and Feeney all the way until the first chain of stops where the strategy game spread them out.

Whilst Matt Payne was the earliest to box on lap 5, the leaders did not start getting serviced until lap 11.

Mostert and Feeney blinked first where the #88 took the opportunity to serve its 5s penalty, while Brown boxed a lap later.

A shorter fuel stop and the one-lap undercut allowed Mostert to enjoy 4s of breathing space over Brown, who was a further 2.6s in front of his teammate.

But as the second stint continued Feeney was the faster Triple Eight Camaro, halving his deficit to Brown in a heartbeat having set the fastest lap of the race.

Despite losing ground to his teammate, Brown was still able to reel in Mostert ever so slightly with the lead being reduced down to 3s.

A further 13s back were current #55 driver Randle and former #55 driver Reynolds and they were running nose to tail for fourth.

After pressuring Randle but not quite getting close enough, Reynolds returned to the pits on lap 25 while behind him Tim Slade got the pit entry slightly wrong and grazed the tyres.

Randle was serviced a lap later and rejoined well in front of the #20 which jumped by Golding, who utilised a three-lap under-cut.

Seeing this Feeney was the first of the leading trio that was now only covered by 3.5s to be serviced on L28 and had a 22.28s stop.

He was followed by both of his rivals a lap later where there was a position change.

Triple Eight was able to service Brown in 17.9s which was fast enough time to rejoin ahead of Mostert, who was refuelled for 21s and snatch the overall lead by a second while Feeney was a further 5s adrift but was setting fastest laps.

To make matters worse Mostert had to take on the remaining 11 laps with an older right front tyre.

Camaro v Mustang

Despite being on the back foot from the stops, Mostert was not giving up.

He set a chain of fastest laps on his way to reducing Brown’s lead to just half a second.

The #25 Mustang was making up its time over the top but the #87 was able to hold the gap to around half a second.

But by lap 36 Mostert’s challenge diminished as he lost ground to Brown and the gap opened up to 1.5s.

Now the Ford star had to worry about Feeney, who was gaining the #25 at the rate of half a lap.

In the end neither could get close enough to make a move as Brown led home Mostert and Feeney, while Randle, Golding, Reynolds, Payne, Le Brocq, Percat and Davison rounded out the top 10, with the latter overcoming Stanaway in a fierce battle.

The Supercars field has a month to find a way to beat Triple Eight at round 2 at the Australian Grand Prix from March 21-24.

2024 Bathurst 500 race 2 results

2024 Supercars Championship

1: W. Brown 288 points

2: B. Feeney -9

3: C. Mostert -21

4: D. Reynolds -96

5: R. Stanaway -96

2024 Bathurst 500 Supercars schedule

Friday, February 23

Practice 1: 1: B. Feeney 2: N. Percat 3: W. Brown

Practice 2: 1: W. Brown 2: T. Hazelwood 3: B. Feeney

Saturday, February 24

Qualifying: 1: B. Feeney 2: W. Brown 3: D. Reynolds

Top 10 Shootout: 1: W. Brown 2: B. Feeney 3: C. Mostert

Race 1 (40 laps): 1: B. Feeney 2: W. Brown 3: C. Mostert

Sunday, February 25

Qualifying: 1: B. Feeney 2: W. Brown 3: C. Mostert

Top 10 Shootout: 1: B. Feeney 2: C. Mostert 3: W. Brown

Race 2 (40 laps): 15.05

There is also lots more loaded into a bumper edition of AUTO ACTION magazine, on sale at newsagents Thursday and available digitally here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.

Latest Podcast: Gentlemen Start your Engines – It’s Supercar Season on the Auto Action RevLimiter!

This is it folks, there’s no more posturing and no more of the who did what to whom talk, this weekend Supercars gets to fight fair in the opening round of the season at the Bathurst 500. Who can win, who will win, we dissect the season and tell you what we think on the latest podcast.

Listen to our latest episode on your podcast app of choice or here

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