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Will Brown was “pretty happy” with how Erebus Motorsport was able to give him a car good enough for sixth in a wet finale to the Armor All Sydney SuperNight.
While Chaz Mostert starred with a drive from last on the 26-car grid to third in Race 25 of the Repco Supercars Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park, Brown also made big ground in tricky conditions.
The 23-year-old in fact gained 11 positions relative to where he had started after some bold moves in the rain at Eastern Creek.
He had also finished sixth in Race 24 which was largely dry, and Car #9 was only 10th- and then 18th-fastest in two wet qualifying sessions which were held earlier in the day.
That did not bode well when the showers returned for the night-time encounter, from which Brown started 17th due to a penalty against Mostert’s car for a technical breach.
However, he jumped to ninth on Lap 1, was fourth on merit by the end of Lap 8, and ended up being somewhat disappointed to be locked into sixth thanks to a combination of a late Safety Car and the red flag which brought an early end to the contest.
“For me, it was a pretty tough day,” said the Queenslander, who has been one of the quickest in the dry in the last two weekends.
“Qualifying, we were pretty disappointed with. To qualify 10th and 17th compared to what we’ve had was really disappointing for the team, but first race, got a really good start, the car was quite quick, and got a sixth place finish [in Race 24], which was really good for us in the championship.
“In [Race 25] with the rain coming in, it was pretty hectic. I got a mega start, a great first lap, it was disappointing to see Brodie’s car [Kostecki, team-mate] out in the first lap, but we moved up to ninth.
“Then off the restart, we got up to fourth, so probably got stitched up a little bit with the Safety Car and ended up sixth.
“But, really happy with what we turned around from a pretty average wet car into that sort of top five wet car, so overall, happy with the day.”
As Brown noted, Kostecki’s night ended early after a tangle with James Courtney put both in the barriers at Turn 3, an incident which officials decided neither was predominately to blame for.
He finished 20th in Race 24 after qualifying 19th and then suffering a broken front anti-roll bar.
Brown and Kostecki sit eighth and 12th in the championship ahead of this weekend’s BP Ultimate Sydney SuperSprint.
