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The Red Bull Ampol Racing driver arrived in the Top End in a form slump having seen his deficit to championship-leading team-mate Will Brown blow out from 17 points to 136 over the course of the Taupo and Wanneroo events.
He trimmed that margin to 115 points with a runaway victory in Race 11 of the season as Brown finished over 10 seconds back in third place after 48 laps.
“I am real happy,” said Feeney when asked by Speedcafe if he felt a sense of relief.
“I mean, I sort of said everyone around me knows that the last couple of rounds were certainly not my up to my standards of where I want to fight.
“You know, I want to be fighting for certainly podiums and trying for wins more often than not; that’s certainly sort of the standard at Triple Eight.
“In Taupo, [Brown] sort of edged me out there but then to go to Perth and sort of just be a bit off the pace all weekend, I wasn’t super-pumped about it.
“So, we worked real hard but coming back here certainly gave me confidence.
“I had a good run last year but just to show up, execute qualifying, and get it done [on Saturday], it certainly means a lot.
“It’s [only] one race but it certainly does mean a lot.
“I think we really turned our championship around here last year with three solid results, and try to do the same again this year.”
Having been left despondent after qualifying 12th for the previous race of the season at Wanneroo, he put the #88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro on the front row for the Hidden Valley opener.
In clean air thereafter, the 2023 Sandown 500 winner romped to an eight-second victory.
“Yeah, [it was] super important,” confirmed Feeney of being in front.
“Obviously, here, when you’re following, your tyres overheat and it makes it quite difficult.
“You run a few plans through your head on what’s going to play out if you get the lead or you don’t at the start, but I felt like I had a bit of a speed advantage on James in those first few laps.
“Normally, you’d sort of see what your pace is like, sometimes you’d drop back, but I felt like I had real good speed and why not use that opportunity if I had it?
“Once I got in clear air, you can really manage the race from then on.”
Now, the task is to repeat the result, with Qualifying for Race 12 of the Repco Supercars Championship next up at 10:25 local time/10:55 AEST.
“Very shortly, we’re going to forget about that,” declared Feeney shortly after huis Race 11 triumph, “and we’re going to focus on doing it all again [today].”
