The Red Bull-backed Triple Eight Race Engineering driver was on course to claim a podium finish before dropping the left rear wheel off at the exit of the third turn.

The corner is notorious for off-road excursions, with several during Friday’s 26-lapper. However, Feeney was the only driver to suffer a puncture.

In the end, Feeney recovered to 14th and wound up nearly 40 seconds in arrears of Race 1 winner Cameron Waters.

“I just made a mistake,” Feeney said post-race.

“I knew that we were pitting that lap and I had the tiniest moment out of [Turn] 3 and my rear tyre has fallen over the edge and there’s probably about a foot drop over there.

“I would have been better to have a big slide off and run off but as I’ve come back on it’s just completely shredded to pieces and I got a flat.

“We got back to the pits without crashing or anything but then we were dead last and got back to 14th.

“I’m gutted for the team because, we certainly weren’t going to catch Cam, but we were a P2 car today and a stupid little mistake has cost us.

“Thankfully, it’s a 60-point race, there are not many positives to take out of it, but it’s better than a big one, that’s for sure.”

Nevertheless, Feeney was optimistic about his chance heading into Saturday and Sunday with a fast car.

“To be honest, the result is not what we wanted, but I think we should be happy with where we were,” he reasoned.

“We’re not P1, so we’re going to work harder to be back there tonight. But I think we were solidly probably the second fastest car out there throughout the whole day.

“Plenty to be happy about. The crew has done a great job to prepare the car for this year and I’ve just made a stupid mistake, so we’re not going to settle down.

“We don’t want to come second tomorrow, we want to come back and try and win tomorrow night. We’ve got a bit of pace to find.”