Brown dominates Supercars Race 12 in Tasmania

Erebus Motorsport’s Will Brown has achieved a dominant victory in Race 12 of the Repco Supercars Championship at the Ned Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint.

Brown took a clear lead to the opening corners when he dropped the clutch from the outside of the front row and, pit stops aside, the #9 Coca-Cola Camaro was not headed for the duration of the 42 laps around Symmons Plains.

Broc Feeney finished just under four seconds back in the #88 Red Bull Ampol Racing Camaro, with Brodie Kostecki prevailing in a late-race battled with Shane van Gisbergen for the final place on the podium.

In the championship, Kostecki leads by a reduced, 87-point margin over his team-mate Brown.

Qualifying had seen those two produce an Erebus front row lockout and it was Brown who got the jump from second on the grid, heading the field to Turn 2 from Kostecki (#99 Coca-Cola Camaro), Jack Le Brocq (#34 Truck Assist Camaro), Feeney, and Tim Slade.

Cameron Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) dropped from third on the grid to sixth, followed by Cameron Hill (#35 Truck Assist Camaro), Mark Winterbottom (#18 DeWalt Camaro), van Gisbergen, and Thomas Randle (#55 Castrol Mustang).

Van Gisbergen’s #97 Red Bull Ampol Camaro had been repaired after a crash in Race 11 but it appeared to be in reasonable working order when he overtook Winterbottom for eighth on Lap 3 at Turn 6.

Team-mate Feeney also gained a spot when he got a run on Le Brocq as they exited Turn 7 on Lap 9, ultimately completing the pass for third as they rounded Turn 3.

Brown had crept a full second clear of Kostecki after 13 laps, and was another 1.5s up on Feeney, while van Gisbergen was first of the top 10 to take his compulsory pit stop, for a change of rears on Lap 14.

Kostecki was almost two seconds behind when he and Le Brocq pitted for rears on Lap 21.

The latter rejoined just ahead of van Gisbergen but got a whack in the door at Brambles Hairpin which unsettled him and the Triple Eight Race Engineering driver was able to make the pass up the back straight, similar to what he did multiple times in 2022.

Brown was into the pits on Lap 23 for rears and rejoined with the effective lead, before Feeney, Waters, and Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang), who had risen to an effective eighth in his first stint, stopped on Lap 24.

The front-runners then, with the effective leader in sixth, were Brown from Kostecki, Feeney, van Gisbergen, Le Brocq, Waters, Hill, and Mostert.

Waters handed a position to Hill when he ran well wide at Brambles on Lap 29, but got it back two laps later at Turn 6, and Mostert capitalised with a pass on the #35 Camaro three corners later at Turn 2.

By then, with the pit stop cycle having just wrapped up, Brown had galloped four seconds clear of Kostecki, who was struggling for pace.

Feeney picked him off for second place at Brambles Hairpin on Lap 32, and then van Gisbergen went by at Turn 6 on Lap 35.

Meanwhile, Slade, who had emerged fifth from the pit stop cycle, pitted with some sort of technical problem in the #23 Nulon Camaro.

Winterbottom went under Hill for eighth position at Turn 6 on Lap 37 and Anton De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Mustang) drove through the gap which had opened to claim ninth for himself as they rounded Turn 9.

Kostecki got back ahead of van Gisbergen on Lap 38 at Turn 6 as the latter started to want for tyre life, while Feeney was slowly catching Brown, who led by more than five seconds at one point.

However, the winner of the day’s earlier race never looked like having enough laps to make up the gap in this one, and the official margin of victory was 3.9922s.

Behind Kostecki and van Gisbergen was Le Brocq in fifth, from lead Ford Mustang driver Mostert, then Waters, Winterbottom, De Pasquale, and Bryce Fullwood (#14 Middy’s Camaro), with Hill 11th in the end.

The next event is the Betr Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley Raceway on June 16-18.

Full Race 12 Results here.

Drivers’ championship

Teams’ championship