Feeney scores fighting win

Broc Feeney got his elbows out and is back in victory lane with a convincing drive in the opening race of the Darwin Triple Crown.

Having not won since round 2 and seeing teammate Will Brown pull clear in the championship, Feeney found the perfect response at Hidden Valley, winning by 8.6s.

Despite not quite clearing pole sitter James Golding in a wild sequence of opening corners, the #88 made the decisive move on Lap 4.

Feeney fired down the inside of Golding at the hairpin and nudged his way into the lead and was never challenged from there.

After being muscled out of the lead, Golding had to settle for fourth, behind runner-up Mark Winterbottom and Brown.

Chaz Mostert set Hidden Valley alight, putting a disappointing qualifying behind him to soar up 17 positions to score an unbelievable top five finish.

The race did not feature reigning champion Brodie Kostecki, who was out on the warm up lap due to an unknown engine issue.

Elbows out

After a long wait at the lights, Golding and Feeney put on a show in a first lap for the ages.

Nothing separated them in the drag race to turn 1 and the pair went side by side all the way around the long left hander.

Feeney bravely tried to hang in there through the fast Turn 3-4 section and even got crossed up in the flip flop before conceding defeat.

But four laps later Feeney was back and he launched an aggressive counterattack.

He fired a dive-bomb at the hairpin and bumped his way into the lead. The #88 climbed the kerb and barged into the #31 when the Red Bull’s nose was fractionally ahead.

Not only did Golding lose the lead, but Winterbottom also snuck past to steal second.

At the same corner Brown made a cleaner move on De Pasquale to creep into the tightly bunched top five.

The #11 then lost further ground and dropped out of the way by bowling a wide at turn 1.

Wildcard rookie Cooper Murray made one spot in the early laps of his Supercars debut before he was spun by Jaxon Evans going into Turn 1. The BJR driver suffered a 15s penalty as a result.

After posting a chain of fastest laps, Feeney opened half a second on Winterbottom as things settled down at the front of the field.

Battling in the lane

By lap 15 Feeney’s lead grew to over 2s as Ryan Wood was the first to pit on lap 15.

The first of the contenders to box were Golding and Percat, who along with De Pasquale and Courtney all pitted on lap 23.

Golding had to hold slightly on pit exit but was able to sneak ahead of Percat.

Winterbottom and Brown boxed the following lap and maintained track position with the #87 emerging just ahead of the #31.

Reynolds pitted on Lap 24 and rejoined in the thick of the action. He went side by side with Golding and managed to merge behind the #31 and in front of Percat.

Feeney waited all the way until lap 29 to make the compulsory stop and rejoined with a comfortable 2.2s lead over Winterbottom.

Flying to the flag

Deeper in the pack, Mostert had four fresh tyres up his sleeve and was determined to make more ground and found himself in a willing battle with a host of mustangs for 10th.

He clashed with De Pasquale coming out of the valley which saw the #25 almost spun on corner exit.

The pair were in the thick of a pack of Mustangs that also contained Payne and Waters.

De Pasquale found himself in more trouble at the end of the lap when Waters gave him a nudge and gained 12th as a result. 

But with contact making the move possible, a 5s penalty followed for Waters.

That battle was convincingly won by Mostert as within a handful of laps he passed Stanaway to be the leading Mustang in ninth.

He then turned his attention to the Camaros ahead and picked off both Slade and Heimgartner to snatch seventh.

There was more craziness outside the top 15 as Cameron Hill threw his Camaro down the inside of James Courtney at the end of turn 1 and made contact.

Four corners later Courtney had another clash, this time with Thomas Randle as the former teammates tangled.

Randle lined up a move on the inside of turn 5, but climbed the kerb which sent the #55 airborne and got jammed into the door of the #7, which left the current Tickford driver with a flat tyre.

Although Feeney had a comfortable margin, it was not that way for long as Winterbottom gained a second as the #88 battled on cold tyres.

“Frosty” closed the margin to just 1.4s on lap 33, but two laps later Feeney responded and started to creep away from the #18 once again and rebuilt the advantage to beyond 4s and it was game over.

All eyes were now on Mostert as he flew past Percat with Waters following his slipstream.

It did not take long for Reynolds to be next on the hit list and Mostert soared into the top five.

Only a second up the road was Golding and the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver on a mission got close, but not enough to make a move.

Waters followed him home to be sixth on the road, but the penalty dropped him to 10th.

Qualifying, a Top 10 Shootout and 48 more laps of racing waits on Sunday in Darwin.

Darwin Triple Crown Race 11 results

Darwin Triple Crown (ACST)

Friday, June 14

Practice 1: 1: W. Brown 1:06.4153 2: J. Golding +0.0156 3: J. Le Brocq +0.0518

Qualifying: 1: J. Golding 1:05.6912 2: N. Percat +0.0742 3: M. Winterbottom +0.1515

Saturday, June 15

Practice 2: 1: W. Brown 1:06.2120 2: B. Feeney +0.3002 3: C. Waters +0.4181

11.35 Top 10 Shootout

15.10 Race 11 (48 laps)

Sunday, June 16

10.25 Qualifying

11.35 Top 10 Shootout

15.10 Race 12 (48 laps)

READ THE LATEST ISSUE OF AUTO ACTION DIGITAL HERE

Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.

Podcast: SVG goes back to back

Shane van Gisbergen has gone back-to-back with a win in Sonoma, while his antipodean mates – Will Brown and Cam Waters – had mixed debuts in the NASCAR Cup Series… but both showed enough to stay on the radar or the US teams looking for the next Giz?

Plus, we’ve got all the latest news on Supercars, F1, IndyCar, and whatever else came to our minds at the time. We also look at the Darwin Supercars and the hypercars at Le Mans for the 24-hour race.

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