FEENEY GOES TWO FROM TWO IN RACE 12

Broc Feeney has sent the challenge back to teammate Will Brown with two wins at the Darwin Triple Crown. He headed a Red Bull Ampol Racing 1-2 in Race 12, while Brodie Kostecki claimed his first podium of 2024.

Broc Feeney lined up on pole for Race 12, with reigning champion Brodie Kostecki alongside in the Erebus Racing Camaro. Will Brown sat immediately behind his teammate with James Golding and Jack Le Brocq on row 3.

Kostecki, A TFH Hire supported driver, had joked after qualifying that was going to be the meat in a Red Bull sandwich at the start of the race and he wasn’t far from the mark.

Feeney and Brown flew off the line, while Kostecki appeared to be hindered in his initial launch and came under attack from Golding. By the exit of Turn 2, Le Brocq had moved past the Nulon sponsored Camaro to have the back of the #1.

Cooper Murray sat inside the Top 10 for the opening corners, only to suffer yet another incident at the hands of a more experienced driver.

This time it was Andre Heimgartner who ended up straddled to the right rear corner of the Supercheap Auto Camaro. Murray had been caught behind Anton de Pasquale on the approach to Turn 5 and nudged the rear of the Shell V-Power Racing Mustang. It set of a chain reaction with Heimgartner touched by Percat as he moved up the inside of Murray.

Heimgartner’s left front wheel was momentarily above the roof line of Murray’s car, with the left rear also airborne as the pair headed off track and onto the grass. The BJR entry eventually broke free and continued, while the Safety Car was summoned as a rather ripped Camaro remained stationary for a short time. Murray was able to restart the car and drive back to the garage at the request of the team. A liberal application of race tape soon saw Murray back on track for more miles behind the wheel.

The race resumed on Lap 3 with Feeney ahead of Brown, Kostecki, Le Brocq, Golding, Hill, Davison, Slade, De Pasquale and Percat. The restart was marred by some avoiding action further down the field, which saw Wood and Love handed pitlane penalties for overlap breaches. Things soon went from bad to worse for Wood who was tapped into a spin at Turn 1.

Le Brocq and Golding was the first of the lead group to make their compulsory pit stops on Lap 22. Golding gained a place as a result with a shorter stop. By now the race had become a intra-team battle for the win with Feeney and Brown well ahead of Kostecki in third.

Kostecki stopped on Lap 25 and Feeney did likewise a lap later. Brown stayed out until Lap 28 and returned to the circuit behind his teammate. The Red Bull Ampol Racing duo were simply a cut above the rest during the second half of the race, ploughing out a fifteen-second advantage over a rather lonely Kostecki in a safe third. Golding, Percat and Le Brocq sat a little over a second and a half apart in the fight for fourth place.

The order remained unchanged over the final laps of the race with Broc Feeney making it two-from-two in Darwin, with Brown in second. Kostecki scored his first podium of the year in third.

Percat, Le Brocq, Davison, De Pasquale, Hill and Stanaway completed the top 10.

“I’m pumped!” Feneey told Fox Sports.

“Two wins this weekend, the pole in the shootout today. It’s not the triple crown, but I’m pretty stoked with that.”

“Just missing the two days of running with the gremlins we had had us fall a little bit behind these (Red Bull Ampol Racing) guys,” Brodie Kostecki said to Fox Sports.

To have the solid run after the days we’d had was pretty cool. We’ve got a bit of work to do before Townsville, but stoked to get a podium for the guys. They worked pretty hard last night with all the drama going on; gearboxes, engines and drivelines, absolutely everything.”

“We’ll go and do some homework and try to catch these (Red Bull Ampol Racing) guys!”

Red Bull Ampol Racing sent us these comments from their drivers.

Will Brown – Car #87
“It’s always a great weekend when you’re disappointed with two podiums. Broc did a better job in both qualifying sessions which allowed him to get the two wins. I felt like I had a really fast car and did what I had to in both races, but ultimately up here in Darwin it’s very hard to pass, so if you don’t qualify well you’ll generally finish where you started. I was trying really hard in the closing stages of the race to pass Broc but I knew by the time I got to him I’d be short on tyre life. I got within a second but then I started to get some wheel spin and struggled. After that I knew it would be hard to close the gap further to make an attack, but overall I’m happy with the weekend we’ve had.”

Broc Feeney – Car #88 
“Technically we didn’t win the Darwin Triple Crown, but we won two races and a shootout, so I’ll certainly take that! I’m absolutely chuffed with my two wins. That one was really tough today and we certainly worked a lot harder for that one. Will (Brown) and the whole #87 crew did a great job and were super-fast, so we certainly pushed ourselves today and the gap to the rest of the field was quite large. It reminded me of SVG (Shane van Gisbergen) and JDub (Jamie Whincup) in Townsville in a few years ago when they gapped everyone by so much just racing each other. I’m just pumped with back-to-back wins for the first time in my career. Qualifying was great this weekend and to back it up in the races was awesome.”

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