Broc Feeney has led a Red Bull Ampol Racing one-two in Race 14 of the Repco Supercars Championship at the Betr Darwin Triple Crown.
Feeney effectively led all 35 laps around Hidden Valley despite a challenge from Brad Jones Racing’s Andre Heimgartner, who would eventually finish third in the #8 R&J Batteries Camaro.
Shane van Gisbergen took second, 1.4763s behind his team-mate, in the #97 Triple Eight Race Engineering entry, with Erebus Motorsport duo Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown fourth and fifth respectively.
Sixth went to PremiAir Racing’s James Golding, about four seconds ahead of two more BJR drivers in Macauley Jones and Bryce Fullwood respectively, with Team 18’s Scott Pye getting home in ninth.
The first Ford driver to take the chequered flag was Nick Percat in 10th but a penalty for the Walkinshaw Andretti United entry meant fellow Mustang pilot Thomas Randle, of Tickford Racing, was classified in that position.
In the drivers’ championship, Kostecki is now 109 points up on Brown, with Feeney another 50 behind in third position.
The latter had qualified on pole position in the #88 Camaro and was joined on the front row by Heimgartner, with those two running side-by-side into the first corner.
They emerged as you were on the starting grid, ahead of van Gisbergen in third, while Brown (#9 Coca-Cola Camaro) rounded up Erebus team-mate Kostecki (#99 Coca-Cola Camaro) for fourth at Turn 5 and Golding (#31 Nulon Camaro) did similar for fifth at Turn 6, as Percat (#2 Mobil 1 NTI Mustang) took up seventh.
Heimgartner had to play defensive to van Gisbergen in the opening stages, with Feeney skipping a full second clear on Lap 3, but then #97 found his mirrors being filled up by #9.
Van Gisbergen saw off that initial challenge from Brown by the time the latter pitted from about half a second back to take a fresh set of rear tyres on Lap 9.
Meanwhile, Kostecki had already been resisted once when he divebombed Golding and made contact with the PremiAir entry at Turn 6, before he completed the pass into Turn 1 on Lap 11 after some more rubbing.
Golding, and Will Davison (#17 Shell V-Power Mustang) from an official seventh but effective eighth, took their stops on Lap 15, then Percat was into the pits a lap later.
Heimgartner was still a touch over a second behind Feeney when he pitted on Lap 18 and was followed into the lane by Kostecki, making for an awkward exit from the #8/#14 BJR box as the championship leader pulled into Erebus’s.
Triple Eight responded by pulling Feeney in a lap later and while he rejoined a position ahead of Car #8 again, the gap had closed up.
In fact, Feeney had to block Heimgartner at Turn 1 on Lap 22 as van Gisbergen pressed on in the official race lead until the end of Lap 25.
Armed with a fresh pair of rears, the 2022 champion merged just behind Heimgartner in what represented a corrected order at the completion of the pit stop cycle.
Feeney led by just over a second from that duo, then Kostecki, Brown, Golding, Macauley Jones (#96 Pizza Hut Camaro), and Pye in eighth.
David Reynolds (#26 Penrite Mustang) was first of the Blue Oval brigade but had a five-second penalty for a pit lane merge breach hanging over his head, and hence Percat was effectively ninth.
Van Gisbergen went under Heimgartner for second place on Lap 27 at Turn 5, by which time Feeney was two seconds to the good, before the leading Mustangs in the race came together on Lap 28.
Percat turned Reynolds around at the Turn 6 hairpin and would be slapped with a 15-second time penalty, with Fullwood inheriting ninth on the road and Randle (#55 Castrol Mustang) an effective 10th but still in 11th, behind the #2 WAU entry, for the time being.
Up front, van Gisbergen made small inroads to Feeney’s lead but never seriously threatened, while Heimgartner finished 1.8297s back from the second of the Triple Eight cars.
Fullwood earned eighth with a Lap 31 pass of Pye at Turn 1, after which he pulled away from Car #20 and nearly usurped team-mate Jones for seventh.
Cameron Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) was classified 12th from 25th and Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang) rose to 13th from 24th after a four-tyre pit stop, the latter scooping the fastest lap points also.
Percat was relegated to 19th due to his penalty while Davison had to pit from 12th due to steering damage with just seven laps to go, and would eventually be classified three laps down in 24th.
Race 15 starts this afternoon at 15:25 local time/15:55 AEST.
Discussion about this post