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Supercars Bathurst 500: Feeney leads Triple Eight 1-2 in season opener

After qualifying on pole position Brown won the start and led Feeney (who started second) until the first round of pitstops, when Feeney pitted a lap later and seized the lead when he returned.

“Fantastic job by the team to have two new cars this year,” said Feeney after the sixth race win of his career.

“My first win on a Saturday, hopefully we can keep that rolling. For sure, I feel like I needed a win to get me going again. We had plenty of speed in that second stint, which was great.

“Normally here the overcut is faster, but I think it was a little bit of difference in fuel.”

Brown lamented missing his Pitlane Speed Limited button when he resumed after his first pitstop.

"I stuffed up on pit exit, I did not get to my button quick enough, but to get second, I am pretty happy with [that],” he said. “That might have let me jump him but the overcut was pretty strong as well, and he got to jump me.”

Mostert was happy, in spite of being boxed in at the start.

“I had two silly roadblocks in front of me! It was probably one of the finest cars I have had to drive around here, probably the first time with Gen3 I have enjoyed driving around here.”

Any chance that the Bulls might be caught ended when Aaron Love crashed his Blanchard Racing Ford (for the second time in the race) with two laps remaining, putting an end to Chaz Mostert’s charge.

His Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford made the best start from third on the grid, but he was unable to find any space between the Red Bull pair to gain positions. He closed to within three seconds of the Chevrolets over the closing laps, before the race finished behind the Safety Car after 40 laps.

Mostert held out fellow Ford driver Richie Stanaway, the 2023 Bathurst 1000 winner making up for a Friday crash by qualifying ninth and making his way forward in the Grove Racing Mustang for most of the race.

Not far behind came the Camaros of Matt Stone Racing, which had its best-ever raceday. Cam Hill ran third early in the race before losing ground, but regained ground to hold out teammate Nick Percat, who came through from eighth on the grid, aided by a late-stop strategy.

Brad Jones Racing’s Bryce Fullwood picked up places to take seventh place (after starting 12th), ahead of David Reynolds. In his first race for Team18 the former Bathurst 1000 winner made the Top 10 Shootout, only to suffer a puncture on his out lap. Starting from 10th, he gained ground with an early pitstop.

Andre Heimgartner (BJR Chevrolet) held out Grove Racing’s Matt Payne for ninth.

It was a disastrous day for Tickford Racing, the newly downsized team having to settle for Thomas Randle taking 14th place. Cam Waters, one of the favourites for the title, qualified a lowly 20th, albeit only 0.4s outside the top 10, and sat squarely in the second half of the field until the front left wheel came adrift, prompting a Full Course Yellow for the first time in Supercars competition.

The cars and drivers get to do it around Mount Panorama again on Sunday, with a second 250km race set for 3:05pm, Australian Eastern Daylight Saving time.

   
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Cla Driver Car Laps Time Interval Retirement Points
1
B. Feeney Triple Eight Race Engineering
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 40

1:36'15.944

    150
2 Australia W. Brown Triple Eight Race Engineering Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 40

+0.390

1:36'16.334

0.390   138
3 Australia C. Mostert Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford Mustang GT 40

+1.132

1:36'17.076

0.742   129
4 New Zealand R. Stanaway Grove Racing Ford Mustang GT 40

+1.510

1:36'17.454

0.378   120
5
C. Hill Matt Stone Racing
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 40

+2.263

1:36'18.207

0.753   111
6 Australia N. Percat Matt Stone Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 40

+3.086

1:36'19.030

0.823   102
7 Australia B. Fullwood Brad Jones Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 40

+3.943

1:36'19.887

0.857   96
8 Australia D. Reynolds Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 40

+4.383

1:36'20.327

0.440   90
9 New Zealand A. Heimgartner Brad Jones Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 40

+5.126

1:36'21.070

0.743   84
10
M. Payne Grove Racing
Ford Mustang GT 40

+5.596

1:36'21.540

0.470   78
11 Australia T. Hazelwood Erebus Motorsport Penrite Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 40

+6.016

1:36'21.960

0.420   72
12 Australia M. Winterbottom Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 40

+6.925

1:36'22.869

0.909   69
13 Australia J. Le Brocq Erebus Motorsport Penrite Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 40

+8.429

1:36'24.373

1.504   66
14 Australia T. Randle Tickford Racing Ford Mustang GT 40

+8.847

1:36'24.791

0.418   63
15 Australia J. Courtney Blanchard Racing Team Ford Mustang GT 40

+9.717

1:36'25.661

0.870   60
16 Australia W. Davison Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang GT 40

+10.316

1:36'26.260

0.599   57
17 Australia T. Slade PremiAir Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 40

+10.851

1:36'26.795

0.535   54
18 Australia J. Golding PremiAir Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 40

+11.634

1:36'27.578

0.783   51
19 Australia M. Jones Brad Jones Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 40

+12.367

1:36'28.311

0.733   48
20 Australia J. Evans Brad Jones Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3 40

+12.752

1:36'28.696

0.385   45
21 Australia A. De Pasquale Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang GT 40

+13.840

1:36'29.784

1.088   42
22 Australia C. Waters Tickford Racing Ford Mustang GT 35

+5 Laps

1:36'31.829

5 Laps   39
 
A. Love Blanchard Racing Team
Ford Mustang GT 33

+7 Laps

1:26'25.574

2 Laps Retirement  
 
R. Wood Walkinshaw Andretti United
Ford Mustang GT 0

 

  Retirement  
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