Supercars legend Mark Skaife believes there are parallels between Broc Feeney’s solo main game debut this weekend and when Craig Lowndes burst onto the scene.

Lowndes put himself on the map with a starring display in the 1994 Bathurst 1000 and was elevated to a full-time seat for the 1996 season.

That opportunity came with none other than the Holden Racing Team, and with Bathurst hero Peter Brock as his team-mate.

Lowndes would go on to win championships in each of his first three full Supercars seasons.

Feeney, meanwhile, has long been hot property, winning titles in Super3 and Super2 on his way up the pecking order.

With just two top-tier starts under his belt, he replaces retired seven-time champion Jamie Whincup at Red Bull Ampol Racing as Shane van Gisbergen’s team-mate.

“If you put it in perspective, Broc Feeney’s debut in the main game, I think it’s probably reminiscent of the Craig Lowndes debut in ’96,” Skaife told Speedcafe.com.

“He’s lining up alongside a superstar and van Gisbergen will give him no free kicks, and as a consequence of all that, no one really knows how he is going to go.

“I mean, he might come out and absolutely star.

“I think pace-wise, he certainly has the makings to do that, but again, the hustle and bustle of the step up from Super2 to the main game is pretty profound.”

Feeney admitted he’s bursting with excitement to get racing in the #88 ZB Commodore, but is not getting ahead of himself.

“It’s a hard one to put a number on [my Round 1 expectations] but I definitely want to be inside that top 10,” he said.

“I think I showed at Bathurst that I can definitely be in there. But I’m not going to stop until I’m reaching my goal, which is winning races and battling the guys consistently at the front.

“As long as I get through the weekend, I learn as much as I can, have some decent results, I will be okay with that. This weekend is learning the process, learning what happens, et cetera.”

Skaife is also interested to see how Walkinshaw Andretti United – formerly known as the HRT, for whom he won three straight drivers’ titles in 2000-02 – fares this year.

“I would certainly like to see them go better but I have no real allegiance obviously,” Skaife said.

“It does bode well when you come out of Bathurst with that kind of dominant display [Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth combining for victory].

“One of the hard parts about this sport is you need to understand – everyone talks about when the cars don’t work that well and what the issues are around why wouldn’t they work – it’s just as important to understand why they did work.

“And for Walkinshaw, with their engineering group expanding, the performance that they had at Bathurst, you would think that a lot of that brainpower would be dedicated to understanding where that performance comes from.

“Then what that does, hopefully, it starts to fill in some of the voids in terms of consistency. Because really… it’s all about making sure that the bad days aren’t that bad.”

WAU this year has an all-star driver line-up of Mostert and Nick Percat.