Teams and drivers react to Supercars wash out

The 2025 Melbourne SuperSprint had been an enthralling affair, but ended a damp squib as the finale was washed out without a single racing lap and whilst not everyone is in agreement, most believe it was the right call.

Only two laps behind the Safety Car occurred before the red flag arrived and eventually the call to abandon it.

It is the first time a Supercars race has been abandoned since Race 30 of the 2021 season, the last leg of the Sydney Motorsport Park quadruple header.

The biggest beneficiary was championship leader Will Brown, who walked away with the Larry Perkins Trophy for a second time.

If the race went ahead he would have been unlikely to do so starting 21st, while nearest rival Broc Feeney was well posited to steal it starting from pole.

Brown admitted it was not how he would have envisaged lifting the trophy, but felt it was the right call.

“Overall, I’m happy. A great weekend, but disappointing way to end though,” he said. 

“Obviously, we couldn’t go racing in those conditions, but I sort of got very lucky with the race getting suspended, and no points being awarded. 

“I was still got wheel spin a few times and understeer through puddle at Turn 5, but that was 80km/h and ultimately it is when you are doing 180 km/h there is a big difference and it is hard to know.

“From previous races throughout my career it was just over the mark and if someone did not make a mistake I would have been very impressed.

“Not the way I want to win the Larry Perkins Trophy.

“I didn’t think the race would get cancelled. I thought ‘this is great, it’ll give me more of an opportunity to pass more cars’ and that’s what I was thinking, but then it turned out that it actually helped me in a different way.”

Pole man Feeney thought racing could have been possible.

“At the time when they red-flagged it, the rain was at its worst – it was raining a lot,” he said. “However, as soon as we pulled up in pit lane, the rain pretty much stopped.

“I felt like maybe if we kept going under safety car, we would’ve got racing. It felt like it dried up quite a bit on the track there. 

“But look, they’ve made a decision. Obviously from my side, I’m gutted.

“It was a very good chance for me to claw back points in the championship fight and also to try and win the Larry Perkins Trophy.”

MSR’s breakout star of the weekend, Cameron Hill, felt it was too wet to race.

“Would have been great if we had a dry race today, but the weather gods played their hand,” he said.

“To be honest the right call was made. The cars are going in containers tomorrow.

“It had the feel that if they started the race someone would have been caught out because there were rivers across the track and if you go 5km/h too fast you just aquaplane.”

Whilst it would not have been a consideration at race control, teams would have been more nervous than usual given the cars needed to be air freighted to Taupo in just two days.

Whilst the Queensland teams are going straight to New Zealand, the Victorian based teams also face the same turnaround, but have the luxury of going back to the workshop.

However, one Queensland based team owner that was not impressed was PremiAir’s Peter Xiberras.

For PremiAir it was the final blow in a could have been weekend where both drivers were robbed of results through a series of incidents.

The latest instance was Sunday where Richie Stanaway was poised for a strong result starting fourth in the rain he enjoys.

“No because we have wet tyres and windscreen wipers,” Xiberras replied to Auto Action when asked if cancelling was the right call.

“I don’t understand because we have raced in worse conditions before. We are here to race.

“If they want to keep the cars parked in garages we should have just stayed at home.

“They (Stanaway and James Golding) wanted to race, they were both 100 percent committed.

“It was clearly not our weekend and hopefully our luck will turn in the current weeks and months and we can show our worth.”

Tickford’s Matty Roberts felt for the fans, but believed it was the right call given he thought it would be unlikely they would get enough laps anyway.

“Yeah, I mean it was unfortunate for the fans because racing is why we are here,” he said.

“I am sure they wanted to see some racing laps and another two to three minutes or minutes or maybe even another one would have made it a different story.

“Whether we would have got 50 percent of the race done? Probably not.

“It was unfortunate because we wanted to go racing but I think the right call was made.”

Image: Peter Norton Epic Sports Photography

Grand Prix week signals the launch for Auto Action’s all-new monthly printed magazine – coffee-table reading packed with in-depth features from around the motorsport world. On sale at newsagents from tomorrow.

A full F1 car by car preview can also be found in the LATEST ISSUE OF AUTO ACTION DIGITAL HERE

For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.