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Will Brown was all smiles despite a disastrous pit stop costing him the chance of challenging for his first Supercars victory in Race 20 at the Bunnings Trade Sydney SuperNight.
Brown kept pace with race leader Anton De Pasquale until shortly before his pit stop when he lost out on Lap 14 to Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen.
One lap later, the Erebus Motorsport rookie and leading Shell V-Power Racing Team entry pitted, negating any chance of an undercut from the trailing Brown.
His hopes were hampered when the wheel nut on his right rear popped out and the right front was slow to attach, costing him over 10 seconds.
Shod with four new tyres, Brown came out behind Brad Jones Racing driver Todd Hazelwood – who would eventually finish 14th – and climbed his way to finish fifth.
“That was a tough one,” said Brown.
“A little bit disappointed but we win and we lose as a team. The boys have tried so hard and they’ve been putting the practice in in pit stops – just made a mistake. That’s part of it.
“We’ll press on. Luckily we’ve got four weekends to go, so we’ll get up on that podium.
“We had really good pace at the start. I thought we could hassle Anton at the start a bit if we could get close enough.
“It’s disappointing and I wish we could have got up on that podium and battled for the win.
“I probably can’t say what was going through my head, I’ll probably get a fine,” he laughed.
“It’s just one of those things. The boys are putting the hard work in, it’s just a mistake.”
Nevertheless, Brown was upbeat about his prospects for the forthcoming races in the Sydney Motorsport Park quadruple-header.
Team-mate Brodie Kostecki was similarly quick in qualifying, the Top 10 Shootout, and race as he went on to claim third in the 32-lapper.
The pair are however compromised going into the final two races of the first weekend having changed four tyres in Race 20 while most of their rivals only opted to fit two new tyres in their respective stops.
“We’ve started off strong for four weekends in a row,” said Brown.
“It’s the same track, we’ve got a strong car, so we’ll press on and hopefully get on that podium and get a win.”
Supercars is back on track tomorrow at 10:30 local time/AEDT for back-to-back qualifying sessions to determine the grid for Race 21 and Race 22.
