Brown extends championship lead with first Bathurst 1000 podium 🏆
Round 10 - Supercars Championship
BATHURST, New South Wales - Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Will Brown has extended his points lead atop the 2024 Supercars Championship standings, with a career-first podium finish at the famed Mount Panorama circuit inching him closer to a maiden championship.
Renowned as one of the most difficult circuits in the world, the Mountain lived up to its reputation early by biting Brown’s co-driver Scott Pye, who crashed the #87 Camaro at ‘the cutting’ during Thursday’s practice session.
The Red Bull Ampol Racing team got to work on ‘Rhonda’ overnight, performing a stunning recovery to have the #87 ready for the following day’s pitstop practice early in the morning. Throughout the remaining practice sessions, both Brown and Pye featured inside the top ten, setting up for a promising qualifying session at Bathurst.
With a championship lead to balance, Brown pushed hard during qualifying while also keeping the big picture in the back of his mind, posting the fifth-fastest time to earn a berth into Saturday’s Top Ten Shootout.
As one of the most intense sessions of the year, Supercars' top-ten drivers of the previous day had one lap to cement their position on the grid for Sunday’s Bathurst 1000. Piecing together a strong yet consistent lap, Brown again pushed hard, capturing the P5 position to start the Race.
Tension was in the air as Sunday arrived, with 1000km, or 161 laps, greeting the drivers which would take the best part of the day to complete. A strong start and clean opening laps are crucial at Bathurst, to ensure drivers are there towards the end of the race and in contention for a podium position.
Brown executed well off the line, maintaining position in the #87 Chevrolet Camaro as the green flag flew. A calculated drive saw both Brown and Pye steadily climb into P3 by the mid-part of the race before a late race safety car with 30 laps to go brought the field right back together.
A final race shootout ensued, with drivers posting qualifying-spec laps as they fought for a place on the podium at the Mountain. For Brown, a strong third-place finish would greet him as the checkered flag flew, marking his first time standing on the Bathurst podium, and extending his Supercars points lead in the process.
“This one (podium) feels awesome, my first one here at the Mountain and I am stoked! Big congratulations to the #1 car, they drove great all weekend long and deserved the win, we just didn’t quite have the pace but we’ll give it another crack next year. Massive shoutout to our team for turning our car around after the damage sustained early in the weekend, they did an awesome job and to have both cars on the podium is epic. A good bag of points towards the championship - I was going hard for that win here, but overall really happy with my first Bathurst podium and now onto Gold Coast.”
Next Event (Round 11): October 25-27 – Gold Coast, Queensland
Supercars Championship Results Race 20 (Bathurst 1000):
- Brodie Kostecki, (Chevrolet)
- Broc Feeney, Red Bull Ampol Racing (Chevrolet)
- Will Brown, Red Bull Ampol Racing (Chevrolet)
Supercars Championship Results after 10 of 12 rounds
- Will Brown, 2538 points
- Broc Feeney, 2334
- Chaz Mostert, 2313