The Red Bull Ampol Racing Camaro struck a duck on the circuit at the exit of the high-speed Turn 11/12 chicane early in the Thursday evening contest.

Feeney said there was nothing he could do to avoid the contact.

“For about three laps there was a yellow flag at Turn 9 and 10. There were two groups [of ducks] on either side of the track,” he recounted.

“Then unfortunately one lap I came through and there were two in the middle of the track.

“By the time you see it, because you’ve got the tyre bundle, by the time you get through… I’m like ‘oh no’. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do.

“I feel bad, I hit it and was like ‘dammit’. My day was looking pretty good until then.”

Feeney’s Camaro escaped damage in the incident, although the driver noted he was dealing with a dirty windscreen for the remainder of the race.

Teammate Brown was following directly behind Feeney and was surprised the ducks had not been scared off by the cars.

“To be honest, it was quite amazing they didn’t get out of the road sooner,” he said.

“They made a perfect pathway for us through for the first three or four laps and then unfortunately one got hit. These things happen.”

The unfortunate incident aside, victory in the Albert Park opener was the perfect fightback for Feeney and Triple Eight.

Feeney qualified on the front-row for all three races at the season-opening Sydney 500 but fell short of victory on each occasion, including by just metres in the Saturday night race.

Triple Eight meanwhile entered the event under siege amid off-track moves that have included its technical director Jeromy Moore being poached by GM.

“If you look back at it, we got three front-row starts in Sydney, the races didn’t go our way, we had one major thing go wrong in every race,” Feeney reflected.

“But we’ve had three seconds and two poles so far to start this year [in qualifying]. So on the qualifying front it’s been awesome, it’s just about converting.

“I know how hard it is here to get pole position, the race was pretty hectic behind us. For us it’s just about executing in qualifying and managing the races as best as we can.

“We’ve just been focused on ourselves this weekend. Marty [Short], my engineer, is doing a fantastic job and so is the whole team and they deserve this result.

“We got smoked in Sydney and we’ve rocked up here and done really well.”

Feeney will also start Friday’s Albert Park race from pole position after sweeping the two qualifying sessions today.