When Erebus Motorsport’s brace of ZB Commodores came to life on a drenched Sandown racetrack yesterday, it was as much a surprise to its drivers as anyone.

The Holden outfit shone in the dismal Race 5 conditions, Brodie Kostecki racing to second from seventh on the grid, and Will Brown charging from 19th to seventh.

Those rises were driven not by strategy or luck but rather sheer speed, as the rookie duo made regular passes throughout the first half of the 36-lap encounter.

It was a turn of events Brown did not see coming after struggling earlier in the day.

“It was crazy, in quali we thought we had terrible wet cars and we were a bit nervous going into that race,” he said on Supercars Trackside.

“By about Lap 2, I knew we had something underneath us, when we passed about 10 [cars] in the first two laps I thought ‘this will be alright’ and kept pressing on.

“So pumped for the team, they’re doing an awesome job and we will roll on.”

It’s not the first time the 22-year-old from Toowoomba has thrived in the Sandown rain, having scored his maiden Supercars Championship podium in similar conditions in the 2019 Sandown 500 co-driver sprint race.

The result is a sound repayment of the team’s faith instilled in Brown following his heavy crash at Mount Panorama last month that necessitated an overnight rebuild at the track and then a chassis swap between rounds.

“I owe the boys a few cartons of beers after I knocked the chassis at Bathurst,” he added post-race.

Brown is now 15th in the championship ahead of Round 3 of the season, the Beaurepaires Tasmania SuperSprint on April 10-11.

Erebus took a podium via David Reynolds at the most recent Supercars race at Symmons Plains, two years ago.

The 2.41km circuit was also the site of Brown’s maiden Super2 Series podium in just his fourth ever race in the category, way back in 2017.