MOTORSPORT: Feeney sweeps Darwin

Broc Feeney has made a return to form in the Repco Supercars Championship at Darwin’s Hidden Valley Raceway, with a pair of convincing race wins reigniting the 21-year-old’s title hopes.

In a strong weekend for the Chevrolet Camaros, Feeney now stands alone with five wins for the season to date, as he closed to within 108 points of his Red Bull Ampol Racing stablemate Will Brown at the top of the standings.

“Technically, we didn’t win the Darwin Triple Crown, but we won two races and a shootout, so I’ll certainly take that!” said Feeney.

“That one was really tough today and we certainly worked a lot harder for that one. Will (Brown) and the whole #87 crew did a great job and were super-fast, so we certainly pushed ourselves today, and the gap to the rest of the field was quite large.

“It reminded me of SvG [Shane van Gisbergen] and JDub [Jamie Whincup] in Townsville a few years ago when they gapped everyone by so much just racing each other.

“I’m just pumped with back-to-back wins for the first time in my career. Qualifying was great this weekend and to back it up in the races was awesome.”

There was a major surprise ahead of the opening race when James Golding scored a maiden pole position for himself and the PremiAir Nulon Racing squad, backing up his provisional pole on Friday with the top time in the shootout.

Golding led the race away, but Feeney barged his way past at the Valley hairpin, and held on for his first win since Saturday at the Australian Grand Prix.

Mark Winterbottom reprised his top performance from Hidden Valley last year with a fine second-place result, leading home championship leader Will Brown and Golding.

A highlight of the race was Chaz Mostert, who drove his way from 22nd on the grid to fifth at the chequered flag with a stunning display of car speed in what was Ford’s best result of the weekend.

Winterbottom’s teammate David Reynolds was sixth in a solid day for Team 18, with the top 10 rounded out by Nick Percat, Andre Heimgartner, Anton De Pasquale and Cam Waters, who was relegated after a 5sec penalty for a bump-and-run pass on De Pasquale.

The Sunday event was another benefit for the Triple Eight Race Engineering duo.

Feeney won the race from pole and Brown was a close second, with the pair some 17 seconds ahead of the field at the chequered flag.

The biggest incident of the race came on the opening circuit when Andre Heimgartner rode over the top of the Supercheap Auto Wildcard entry of Cooper Murray, although both cars continued in the race after a brief safety car intervention.

Up until that point, it was an impressive main game debut for Murray, who qualified for Sunday’s top 10 shootout.

The second race was also a strong one for reigning champion Brodie Kostecki, who converted a front-row start into his first podium since the Gold Coast last year.

Golding wrapped up a strong weekend in fourth, then Percat, Jack Le Brocq, Will Davison, De Pasquale, Cameron Hill and Richie Stanaway.

The next stop on the Supercars tour is the NTI Townsville 500, scheduled for July 5-7.

Race 1 – 48 laps

Race 2 – 48 laps

Championship points:

Join the conversation at our Facebook page
Or email us at editor@carsales.com.au