Brown had overhauled Feeney in a thrilling conclusion to the ITM Taupo Super400, after which Triple Eight Race Engineering Team Manager Mark Dutton said the team would need to understand why there was such a pace difference between the two.

However, Car #87 once again had the wood on Car #88 at the Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint.

“We’re not sure,” said Whincup, when asked by Speedcafe if the team had found out why there was a difference in pace.

“We’ll just go away and see where the deficits were and work out was it set-up, was it driver, was it a combination of both? We’re not exactly sure.

“I think, mechanically, everything’s identical, so that’s just homework after the weekend.”

Brown edged Feeney by one position and 0.0499s in Saturday’s qualifying session at Wanneroo but, come Race 9 itself, was able to keep in touch with the Fords which filled the top three during the opening stint while gapping his team-mate.

Both undertook four-tyre stops but it was Car #87 climbing to second at the chequered flag whereas #88 was a net unchanged fifth.

Come Sunday, though, the obvious discrepancy was in qualifying performance.

Brown finished where he started whereas Feeney gained five positions over the 55 laps, but the former had started third whereas the latter qualified 12th, after which he lamented he was “nowhere near it at the moment.”

At Wanneroo, unlike the dry Taupo race, though, Triple Eight could not at least celebrate a one-two.

Instead, it was Walkinshaw Andretti United, off the back of a recent test, which consistently had the quickest cars over the course of the weekend and Tickford Racing looked to have the edge on the Chevrolet squad as well.

“We’re going alright, we just didn’t quite have the pace this weekend,” declared Whincup.

“Both crews did a very, very good job; had fast cars, and we maximised, so it was a solid weekend.

“To be honest, I was a bit of a race fan. It was all going on from Super2 to these boys battling it out; it was good stuff.

“I lost concentration there for a while and then Will was coming through and we elected to roll the dice with four tyres for each car, which meant you dropped back in the pack but gave yourself an opportunity.

“We were sort of praying for a Safety Car at the end there – we would have been in a much better position with a Safety Car – of course Chaz [Mostert, who incurred a five-second time penalty] didn’t want that.

“But, all in all, not much to report. We just didn’t quite have enough pace.”

Brown extended his championship lead over Feeney from 71 points to 136 over the course of the Wanneroo weekend.

Triple Eight stretched its teams’ championship points lead from an already chunky 481 to 594, more than a full event’s worth of points (even including fastest lap bonuses, except for Albert Park), although that was largely down to Grove Racing having a substandard weekend.

The Sunshine State-based teams, including Triple Eight, are set to test at Queensland Raceway on Tuesday, May 28.