Feeney grabs Darwin pole
Broc Feeney flew from eighth to first to take pole ahead of a resurgent Brodie Kostecki for the Darwin Triple Crown finale.
Feeney has put himself in pole position to take an Indigenous Round clean sweep by being in a league of his own in the top 10 shootout.
The #88 was the only car in the 1m5s window with Kostecki emerging second best, just over a tenth away.
The reigning champion leading Erebus Motorsport’s fightback just edged ahead of champoinsho leader Will Brown with James Golding completing the top four.
In a session where drivers ran a mixture of tyre choices with those on a full set of fresh Supersofts gaining ground as the top six was full of Camaros.
Below is a rundown of each run in the one lap dash.
P9: Anton De Pasquale 1:06.5490 (+0.6285)
De Pasquale produced a solid, but unspectacular lap in 50th shootout with minimal mistakes.
Just clipped the dirt at the penultimate corner, but kept it on the black stuff.
Despite De Pasquale describing it as a “decent lap” it proved to be an easy benchmark to beat.
P6: Cameron Hill 1:06.3222 (+0.4017)
Hill flew on four brand new green tyres and was two tenths up at the first split.
Made a late apex at Turn 6 hairpin and was well clear of De Pasquale at all points to be a solid 0.237s faster.
Hill thought he did a “pretty solid” job in his first Darwin shootout.
P1: Broc Feeney 1:05.9205
Feeney was also armed with four fresh tyres and made the most of them.
Turned the #88 well through Turn 1 to be marginally ahead of Hill, but pushed even harder for the remainder of the lap.
Hugged the kerb at the hairpin and gained two tenths in the mid sector and nailed the final sector to be the first into the 1m05s window.
Feeney gave a fist pump as he crossed the line being four tenths faster than Hill to set a high benchmark.
“Pretty happy with that one, probably one of my nicest laps of the weekend,” Feeney said.
“Didn’t have the best quali so good to bounce back.”
P5: James Le Brocq 1:06.2156 (+0.2951)
Made a later apex at the hairpin in the valley and was two tenths down at the midpoint
Danced his way through the final section of corners to secure second at the time, 0.2951s away from Feeney with a clean lap.
Le Brocq was not overly impressed and felt he asked for too much “turn” in car set-up.
“A bit average. Unfortunately probably dropped a little bit with how much turn we put in,” Le Brocq said.
P4: James Golding 1:06.1736 (+0.2531)
Saturday star Golding just got it stopped into turn 1 on four fresh tyres and had a small slide out of turn 5 to be the second slowest at the first split
But the PremiAir driver bounced back well and set a purple final sector to salvage second best at the time to sneak ahead of Le Brocq by 0.04s.
“Obviously car a bit different to yesterday so had to do it a bit differently but still pretty happy with the lap,” were Golding’s initial thoughts.
P10: Cooper Murray 1:06.8490 (+0.9285)
All eyes were on Murray as he took on the Top 10 Shootout in just his second race in the Supercheap Auto wildcard.
Was not on fresh tyres and made a wide approach into turn 1 before using all the kerb in the valley.
Lost half a second in the second sector and had a wide exit out of the final corner but importantly kept it clean in his first one lap dash.
Ended up being 0.9285s off Feeney and three tenths off De Pasquale, but Murray “loved every second of it.”
P7: Will Davison 1:06.3412 (+0.4207)
Veteran Davison took on his 72nd shootout in his 250th round on roaded tyres.
Went deep under brakes into turn 1 and took a wide line and dropped two tenths to Feeney
Also took a later and deeper line through the hairpin and ended up fifth, slightly behind Hill and well ahead of DJR teammate
Glad to have a good turnaround from yesterday
Bit of a shame we got through on two sets of tyres and loaded these tyres
The lap was cement but knocked the edge off the tyre a bit
P8: Tim Slade 1:06.3648 (+0.4443)
Slade took a tight line through turn 1 with fresh right hand side tyres and was just a tenth away from the #88 at the first split.
But he lost a bit of time through the final two sectors to emerge sixth at the time, four tenths off.
Slade said PremiAir “shot ourselves in the foot” due to taking more tyres earlier in the weekend.
P2: Brodie Kostecki 1:06.0579 (+0.1374)
First shootout with the #1 on the door and blitzed the first sector to be 0.003s ahead
Was a touch wide in the hairpin and lost a tenth in the second sector.
Pushed hard coming out of the final turn and ended up 0.1374s short of Feeney.
But the strong lap was still enough to be second best.
“Wasn’t too bad. Not sure what the track was doing,” Kostecki said.
After completing the lap decided to turn his attention to distracting former teammate Brown by flashing his lights behind the #87.
P3: Will Brown 1:06.0687 (+0.1482)
Brown was the last out on fresh tyres and went deep through turn 1 and was a tenth down at the first split.
He latched onto the inside kerb in the valley and matched Feeney in the second sector.
Had a tight exit coming onto the straight and emerged third, just behind Kostecki.
Image: Jake Dunn/Northline Media
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
Top 10 Shootout: 1: J. Golding 1:06.2302 2: B. Feeney 1:06.3091 3: Mark Winterbottom 1:06.3621
Race 11: B. Feeney 2: M. Winterbottom +8.6763 3: W. Brown +10.6426
Sunday, June 16
10.25 Qualifying
11.35 Top 10 Shootout
15.10 Race 12 (48 laps)
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