WIll Brown follows Broc Feeney home to wrap up Supercars title

Will Brown has secured the 2024 Supercars title after taking place in the opening race of the weekend in Adelaide, chasing home Triple Eight team-mate Broc Feeney to take an unassailable lead in the points.

Brown went into the race knowing that he would be champion unless Feeney was able to outscore him by more than 30 points, with the pair being the only ones still in title contention.

Qualifying had proven to be a dramatic affair, with the opening session on Friday being abandoned after Richie Stanaway, Cam Hill and David Reynolds all clattered into the wall on the exit of turn eight.

That caused damage to the barrier that couldn’t be fixed before the circuit curfew came into play and resulted in a somewhat different looking line-up for the Top Ten Shootout as the likes of Aaron Love and Jaxon Evans made their way through but Will Davison and Chaz Mostert missed out – the latter having not even set a time when the stoppage occurred.

In the shootout, Cam Waters once again showed his qualifying prowess as he stormed to a seventh pole of the campaign ahead of Thomas Randle as Ford locked out the front row.

Feeney meanwhile took third spot from Matt Payne and Brown, with the points leader having earlier headed the Friday session.

When the lights went out at the start it was Randle who made the best start to jump into the lead from Waters, with Feeney retaining third, whilst Brown wasted little time in getting ahead of Payne to move into fourth in the early stages behind his team-mate and title rival.

Randle would hold the lead through the opening stint of the race before Feeney was the first of the front-runners to come in, with Triple Eight electing to short fill his car in a bid to gain track position.

It would prove to be a good call when Randle and Waters both pitted in the following laps and emerged behind the Red Bull Chevrolet. Brown meanwhile lost time in his stop when he locked up coming into the box and was slightly out of position – causing a delay as his tyres were changed.

Knowing he needed to make a longer second stop, Feeney set about trying to extend his advantage at the front but it was Randle – having let Waters through to chase the leader – who was first of the front-runners to come back in, with Waters following him in a lap later.

It meant the two Tickford runners were up to speed on their tyres when Feeney dived in before rejoining just ahead of Waters on the road – keeping his rival behind on the out lap to maintain track position in the defacto lead of the race.

Brown was the last of the quartet to make his second stop and having rejoined on the tail of Randle’s car, he piled the pressure on the poleman before sliding down the inside at turn nine from a long way back to get ahead of the Ford.

When Brodie Kostecki came in for his second stop, Feeney regained top spot and was able to ease away from Waters, who had no answer for the pace of the youngster as he looked to try and keep his slim title hopes alive.

In fact, Waters found himself being reeled in by Brown and having raced onto the rear of the Tickford man, the champion-elect – who would have won the title without making the move – swept through to make it a Triple Eight one-two at the front.

Whilst Feeney went on to secure a comfortable second career win around the Adelaide streets to go with his 2022 success, Brown followed him home in second spot to secure an unassailable lead in the standings with one race left to run.

Waters held on to take third spot but only after fending off huge pressure from Matt Payne, who overhauled Randle in a similar move to Brown and then closed in on the second Tickford car; ultimately failing with a last lap move and having to settle for fourth.

Randle took the flag in fifth place ahead of Kostecki, with Andre Heimgartner and James Courtney behind, whilst Anton De Pasquale and Ryan Wood rounded out the top ten.

Mostert was the big moved in the field despite having to deal with a clutch issue that left him to start from the pitlane, charging through to 13th.