Brown was struggling for pace towards the end of the race thanks to a flat spot that occurred during an early battle for position with David Reynolds.

It left him vulnerable initially to Tickford’s Thomas Randle before a brief reprieve when Randle ran wide trying to execute a pass.

A few laps later Brown came under fire from both his teammate Feeney and a recovering Randle and looked to be a sitting duck – until Randle made a mistake into the hairpin and clattered into the back of Feeney.

That secured second place for Brown but meant Feeney slipped back to 15th, prompting suggestions that T8 should have let Feeney through when he first got to the back of the #87 Camaro.

The idea is that less congestion may have helped avoid the Randle/Feeney tangle, and perhaps bagged T8 a second and a fourth, even if Randle had got through on Brown.

T8 technical director Jeromy Moore said the situation will be assessed as part of the debrief, while also defending the default position of allowing drivers to race rather than enforcing team orders.

“As a team we always like our drivers racing,” he said.

“We don’t want to lock the race down and make it boring for the fans. At the end of the day we’re an entertainment business so we want to make sure we put on a good show and allow the drivers to do what they can for their own championship.

“But we’ll go back and have a look and see if we could have done anything better there, or not.

“It’s always hard. It’s always a tough decision to call a switch or not in the heat of the moment. You’re not going to get them right 100 per cent of the time.

“The main thing is allow them to race as much as they can and leave it on track and less in the pit bunker.”

Brown said he would have moved aside if asked, given he was expecting both Feeney and Randle to get past anyway.

“Yeah, obviously I listen to what the team says,” he said.

“I pretty much knew when I locked a front in there and ran wide that [Feeney] was just turning underneath me. I could see it in my mirror.

“I was sure that he was going to get me, and probably Thomas was going to pass me as well. I was like, ‘oh well, they’re probably both going to get me here, I’m going fairly slow’.

“Pretty much on that lap I decided that, and then I saw [the crash] in my rear view mirror. It was disappointing. I’m not sure if Thomas was trying to pass Broc at that corner or just locked rears and made a mistake. I don’t really know.”

The crash was a mistake from a distraught Randle who attempted to apologise to Feeney immediately after the race.

He was barred from entering the garage by T8 team manager Mark Dutton, the denial also including a physical push.

Tickford has since requested the altercation be investigated by Motorsport Australia based on Barry Ryan receiving a reprimand for a similar situation two years ago.