Brown: “That was the best race of my life”

Feeney had qualified on the front row and led for much of the 60-lap encounter but it became apparent that he had a serious challenge on his hands as the middle stint wore on.

With 13 laps to go, and the final stops done, the Triple Eight Race Engineering entries were nose-to-tail as Brown hassled his team-mate.

For the most part, it was a hard but clean battle, even if #87 did give #88 a nudge on Lap 50.

Two laps later, Brown finally made the pass at Turn 5, and cleared out to a three-second victory which means he extends his lead over Feeney in the Repco Supercars Championship to 71 points.

“I think I bumped him once – like, accidentally down there – but I think he held a bit of brake to make out I bumped him a bit harder,” laughed Brown in his extended post-race television interview.

“So, it was cool; he’s playing the game, so am I.

“There’s not meant to be any contact but it was bloody hard not to do contact because, with the tyre life I had, I was so much faster mid-corner; you’re, like, waiting a long time.

“But I think, no matter what, if it was our team or another team, that was an awesome battle.

“Like, that was the best race of my life, that one, I reckon. That was awesome.”

He added, “It was hard. I didn’t want to bump him and put him off or put both of us off, so it was really hard.

“I just worked him a little bit. Out of Turn 9, I was getting a better run and I was putting him into the marbles into Turn 11 and getting a bit of dirt on his tyres and playing the game.

“He said after to me, ‘I knew what you were doing there.’

“Yeah, it was cool. I just think it was an awesome battle, no matter what, so, absolutely loved it.”

According to Brown, who scored five race wins with Erebus Motorsport and now three so far with Triple Eight, Feeney’s racecraft was good too.

“He was smart enough to dive straight for the apex at Turn 5, but also Turn 11, so I was sort of snookered, I didn’t know where to go,” he explained.

“But, he had pretty good drive off Turn 11, so I couldn’t go wide and switch him back.

“So, it was tough, I think where I got him was a good move.

“I locked the rears and thought, ‘Oh, don’t put him in… Don’t door him here. I’ll get my first written warning or something.’

“So, I thought, better not, but that was awesome.”

Triple Eight has extended its teams’ championship lead to 481 points, meaning it could almost afford to skip the following event at Wanneroo and still hold on to the first pit boom at Hidden Valley under the new-for-2024 live pit lane order.