Picking and ranking our top 10 for this season was easier than a year ago.
With the playing field significantly more level than in 2023 the points table was a better representation of who performed and who didn’t, particularly those driving Mustangs.
But easier doesn’t mean it was easy. There were still some curveballs, including the reigning champion missing the first two rounds of the year.
So there were still some robust discussions as Editorial Director Andrew van Leeuwen and Managing Editor Stefan Bartholomaeus hammered out their combined list.
Here’s where they landed.
10. Andre Heimgartner – Brad Jones Racing
Wins: 1
Best Qualifying: 3rd
Championship: 10th
It was a tough season for Brad Jones Racing and more often than not, Heimgartner wasn’t working with the car speed needed to fight near the front.
The exception, of course, was his sublime win in wet conditions on home soil in New Zealand.
That highlight went a long way to earning Heimgartner his spot in our list, as did the consistency he showed to end up 10th in the points.
The real clincher, though, was just how far ahead of the other BJR drivers he finished the year. The next best was Bryce Fullwood, a full eight spots behind the Kiwi. AVL
9. James Golding – PremiAir Racing
Best Finish: Third
Poles: 1
Championship: 7th
A breakout year for Golding in a PremiAir Racing outfit that is still finding its feet, charging nine places up the drivers’ standings to seventh.
Highlights included a maiden pole position at Hidden Valley and a long-awaited podium finish at the Sandown 500 alongside co-driver David Russell.
Couldn’t quite make a solo driver race podium stick though, notably unable to hold an early lead against an aggressive Broc Feeney in the Hidden Valley race he started from pole.
Patchy qualifying form was an issue throughout the season and he was out-qualified by teammate Tim Slade nine times across the first 18 races. Will need to improve in this area if he is to take another leap forward in 2025. SB
8. Thomas Randle – Tickford Racing
Best Finish: 2nd
Poles: 1
Championship: 5th
Randle built on the promise shown at the back end of 2023 and took a genuine step forward in 2024.
Being paired with Cam Waters is a tough gig, but Randle made clear in-roads on his rapid teammate this year. Waters still has the edge on speed, particularly over a lap, but Randle looked much more like a match – and even nabbed a pole off qualifying king Waters in Tasmania.
That same day at Symmons Plains provided a key lowlight for Randle, though, when he ran off at the hairpin on the first lap, and then crashed into Feeney in the closing laps.
Fifth in the points was an impressive outcome, but the next step is clear – Randle now needs to start winning races. AVL
7. Matt Payne – Grove Racing
Wins: 1
Poles: 2
Championship: 6th
All up an impressive sophomore season from 22-year-old Payne, who rose eight championship positions to sixth and out-gunned new teammate Richie Stanaway.
Matched his own 2023 tally of a single race win with a strong drive in a strategy-fuelled battle on Sunday in Townsville and picked up maiden poles at Albert Park and Taupo.
Inexperience was also evident at times including on the big stage at Bathurst, where he topped Friday qualifying but proved the only driver to crash out in the race.
Anonymous weekends at Hidden Valley and Symmons Plains appeared to be more team related than driver and prevented a top five championship finish. SB
6. Nick Percat – Matt Stone Racing
Wins: 2
Best Qualifying: 3rd
Championship: 8th
What a turnaround the 2024 season was for Percat.
He went so close to hanging up his helmet after the brutal two-year stint at Walkinshaw Andretti United, only to completely revive his driving career at MSR.
The family team environment was exactly what Percat needed to reclaim his race-winning form, and he rewarded the faith shown in him by Matt Stone with two impressive wins in Melbourne and Tasmania.
Together, Percat and MSR became fairly regular features at or near the front of the field which is an undoubtedly impressive achievement. AVL
5. Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
Wins: 2
Poles: 2
Championship: 17th
A hard season to rank for reigning champion Kostecki.
His best was brilliant, dominating from pole position at Bathurst and repeating the dose on Sunday on the Gold Coast. Probably should have won the Sunday race in Adelaide too if not for an early penalty for tapping Will Brown into a spin.
The magnificence was of course somewhat counterbalanced by the mysterious, with Kostecki’s absence from the opening two rounds still largely unexplained, and some middling form following his comeback blamed on car set-up and reliability factors.
The trials and tribulations arguably make his late season run even more impressive, with the Bathurst performance alone making him worthy of a place on this list. SB
4. Broc Feeney – Triple Eight Race Engineering
Wins: 6
Poles: 5
Championship: 2nd
Scored more race wins than anyone across the season and finished a career-best second in the standings having taken the championship fight to the last race.
A fourth-place ranking may seem harsh on that basis, but the expectation for Feeney’s third year at Triple Eight – and following the departure of Shane van Gisbergen – was a championship win and few predicted him to be beaten by recruit Brown.
Feeney lost valuable ground with small mistakes in early rounds at Bathurst and Albert Park, before being defeated by Brown in a head-to-head battle on the Sunday at Taupo that looked to carry more weight than just a simple race win.
Also struggled for consistent qualifying speed in the mid-season but bounced back strongly from an unlucky Symmons Sunday with five podiums across Sandown, Bathurst, the Gold Coast and Adelaide to be well placed for 2025. SB
3. Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing
Wins: 4
Poles: 7
Championship: 4th
Waters showed once again this season that he is one of the absolute best in Supercars.
That is particularly true in qualifying, with Waters in devastating form over a single lap as he stormed to a category-high seven pole positions.
Unfortunately, he was never really in realistic title contention thanks to a slightly slow start to the year as he dealt with illness at the season opener, and Tickford found its feet as a streamlined two-car outfit.
But on the days when it clicked he looked as fast as anybody and it’s tough not to count him as one of the real favourites for the title heading into 2025. AVL
2. Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
Wins: 3
Poles: 2
Championship: 3rd
Mostert picked up a swathe of well-deserved awards at the end-of-year gala, but not the one that he really wanted – a maiden championship title.
Fears that Mostert would struggle without long-time engineer Adam De Borre were immediately allayed with two podiums at the Bathurst opener. A further nine podiums followed including three mid-season wins that rocketed him into title contention.
Big points, though, were lost through issues not of his own doing – a wayward wheel at Taupo, a co-driver spin at Sandown and a double dose of an electronics glitch and a bungled pitstop on the Gold Coast. Through it all Mostert remained a team player.
The season ended with Mostert’s own best and worst on show in Adelaide – spun out of a winning position by Feeney after inexplicably ignoring calls to let the already penalised driver past, before brilliantly holding onto second with a wounded car. SB
1. Will Brown – Triple Eight Race Engineering
Wins: 5
Poles: 2
Championship: 1st
There were those that thought that Brown would struggle against Feeney at Triple Eight. Or that Triple Eight should have signed Richie Stanaway to replace Shane van Gisbergen rather than Brown.
And Brown proved them all wrong in spectacular fashion.
Brown took full advantage of having a car capable of fighting at the front week in, week out – to the point that he finished on the podium at every single event. He was incredibly quick and incredibly consistent, the latter proving to be the key difference between Brown and Feeney.
It was a beautifully crafted championship-winning season, simple as that. AVL
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