Feeney overcomes Randle to win Symmons Plains opener

The 22-year-old started from the outside of the front-row and stalked polesitter Thomas Randle through the early laps.

Feeney finally made his move on lap 11 of 50, cutting underneath the Tickford Racing Mustang at the Turn 4 hairpin and then pulling clear on the back straight.

Teammate Will Brown was also in hot pursuit and pounced on Randle in the short shoot between Turns 6 and 7.

Randle steadied the ship in third ahead of teammate Cam Waters and Brad Jones Racing’s Bryce Fullwood.

Feeney held a one-second gap to Brown when the leader pitted on lap 26, followed in by Fullwood.

Brown and Randle pitted together three laps later but both lost ground with slow stops.

The order after the cycle was Feeney from Fullwood, Randle, Waters and Brown – the Triple Eight duo having taken four tyres and the others two.

Randle was subsequently able to move past Fullwood with relative ease as the BJR driver focused on conserving fuel in the closing stages.

Feeney cruised to victory 7.9 seconds clear of Randle, with Fullwood hanging on for third.

“The thing was a rocket ship,” beamed Feeney, who will start the afternoon’s second race from pole position.

“I knew on the first few laps I probably had the speed, so I just had to wait for my time to get past Thomas, and he was driving fantastic.

“I knew where I was going to get him I just had to wait for my time. I had a good run through [Turns] 1 and 2 and I knew it was going to be the lap.

“[I] put her in on the lock stops and a bit of side-drafting with a Tickford car, which I’m used to. It was good to get one back.”

Randle commented on Feeney’s straightline speed via team radio during the contest and doubled down in the post-race interviews.

“We didn’t get the win, but I think that was all we could have done,” said Randle.

“We’re hampered in an area we can’t control. It was cool to lead for the first few laps, I was trying to break the slipstream off Broc, but he was too fast.”

Asked what the difference was, Randle added: “A bit of straight line handling, I think. Not much more we can say, really.”

Fullwood was 1.9s behind Randle at the flag and cut a surprised figure post-race.

“I didn’t think I was going to get back to pit lane. I had to fuel save for probably 15 or 20 laps there. I was like, ‘why am I fuel saving? This is not a fuel race?’” he said.

“They asked me for some pretty impressive on my dash to fuel save and I had to lift everywhere.”

Waters held out Brown for fourth while Ryan Wood, Jaxon Evans, Brodie Kostecki, James Golding and James Courtney rounded out the top 10.

Taupo winners Chaz Mostert and Matt Payne rose from 19th and 24th on the grid respectively to salvage 15th and 16th.

Will Davison went in the opposite direction; 16th on the grid becoming a 21st place finish after being turned around by Macauley Jones in the early stages.

Results: Tasmania Super440 Race 1, Symmons Plains