Feeney beats Brown in mad Melbourne opener

The race was shortened to 18 laps due to a Safety Car intermission when solo Supercars debutant Aaron Cameron beached his car in the Turn 3 gravel trap.

Feeney controlled proceedings in an otherwise chaotic race behind the top five finishers with a litany of incidents.

“It’s been awesome. Look at all the people here, and it’s only Thursday,” said Feeney.

“It’s so good to be back at the grand prix. I love it here. I’ve had a really good run the last few years and today has been nothing short of that.

“I can’t thank the team enough. Although we were close at Sydney a lot of times, they really deserve a win here and a one-two. Will drove unreal there today.

“Gerat teamwork. The team has done a fantastic job and stoked to be back on the top step.”

Off the line, Feeney got the holeshot into Turn 1 over his teammate Brown while Cameron Hill held onto third over Jack Le Brocq.

“I was trying to get a better start than the New Zealand Grand Prix when Will got me off P2,” Feeney joked.

“I got the start and then we just tried to manage it from there. It’s obviously great having a teammate behind who you know is fast and where their car is going to be good.

“We were able to manage it from there. It was awesome. It was fast-paced after the safety car.”

At the end of Lap 1, Feeney led Brown by a second leaving last year’s Supercars champion to fend off Matt Stone Racing’s Cameorn Hill through Turn 11.

PremiAir Racing’s Richie Stanaway was the best starter of the top 10 runners. He rose from seventh to fifth after displacing the leading Fords of Brodie Kostecki (Dick Johnson Racing) and Matt Payne (Grove Racing).

Outside of the top 10, Ryan Wood (Walkinshaw Andretti United) made up four places to 13th by the end of Lap 1.

On Lap 3, Grove Racing’s Kai Allen nearly threw his car in the wall at Turn 8 after sliding through the grass at the fast, sweeping right-hander.

After a quick start, Stanaway started to lose ground and in the space of less than a minute lost out to Kostecki at Turn 11 on Lap 4 and Payne into Turn 1 on Lap 5.

At the same time on Lap 4, Anton De Pasquale lost a heap of ground after being cast out wide at Turn 11 when he went side-by-side with Walkinshaw Andretti United driver Chaz Mostert. Then De Pasquale found himself out in the weeds again just seconds later out of Turn 12.

On Lap 6, Allen wound up facing the wrong way at the final turn after getting caught out in the marbles and appearing to spin on his own.

The chaos came to a brief halt when Aaron Cameron got buried in the Turn 3 gravel trap on Lap 7 in the #3 Blanchard Racing Team Mustang and brought out the Safety Car. At the same time, Brad Jones Racing’s Macauley Jones went skating through the sand.

The race resumed on Lap 10 with Feeney still at the head of the field.

At the intermission, Mostert and Wood found themselves in eighth and ninth having made up five and eight places respectively. Waters, meanwhile, was 14th from 22nd.

In an incredible sequence on Lap 11, Mostert and Stanaway exchanged places at Turn 1 and Turn 2 before Wood lunged them both into Turn 3.

Just ahead of them, Jack Le Brocq and Brodie Kostecki made contact, which sent the #9 Erebus Motorsport Camaro into a spin at Turn 4.

Stanaway tried to force his nose up the inside of Wood at Turn 5 but couldn’t make it through, which bunched up the field and allowed Golding to made headway in that sequence. He got by Mostert and Stanaway only to undo all of his hard work when he whacked the tyre bundle at Turn 10.

The battle finally reached boiling point at the third-to-last corner when Stanaway nearly found himself facing the wrong way after simultaneous wheel-to-wheel contact from Mostert and Murray. Stanaway went sliding through the gravel trap and fell to 19th while Golding pitted with damage to his front bumper.

The biggest benefactor in all of it was Waters who rose to eighth.

Meanwhile, at the head of the field, Brown began to hound Feeney for second in the dying minutes of the race. However, the race leader responded and stretched his legs.

On the second-to-last lap, Percat and Murray came together at Turn 4 marking the second spin for an Erebus Motorsport Camaro, ending a horror race for the team.

In the end, Feeney cleared out to a 1.5-second lead over Brown. Hill was third while Kostecki kept Wood at bay for fourth.

Waters was the biggest mover from 22nd to sixth. Despite the chaos, De Pasquale was able to recover to seventh after his early dramas.

Randle was just as impressive as Waters in eighth while Payne dropped to ninth on the last lap. Mostert was the last of the top 10 runners.

Waters still leads the standings on 364 points over Brown (-40) and Feeney (-73), Mostert (-79), and Payne (-114).

Race 5 of the Repco Supercars Championship gets underway at 2:50pm AEDT on Friday, March 14.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship MSS Security Melbourne SuperSprint, Race 4