Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!
On the weekend of the June 14 to 16 2024 was the Betr Darwin Triple Crown.
It was round 5 of the Supercars Championship and held at Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin, Northern Territory.
Hidden Valley Raceway was first opened in 1986 and is part of a larger motorsport complex. It has a 1 km drag strip alongside the racetrack itself. Originally it was first used as a dirt track, motorcross track and go kart circuit.
Since 1998 it has held an annual round of the Supercars championship.
Mark Skaife won the first ever Supercars race at the venue.
The second race went down in history. Both Holden Racing Team cars were on P1 and P2 on the starting grid but were non-starters and sitting in the garage with the same engine issue. So in a highly unusual situation the race started with the front row of the grid vacant! I don’t recall this ever happening before or since.
This year’s event saw both Will Davison and James Courtney celebrate their 250th round in Supercars.
The weekend started with typical NT winter day, 32 degrees, hot and sunny.
In the pre-race sessions:
- Will Brown was fastest in Practice 1
- James Golding was fastest in Qualifying
- Will Brown was fastest in Practice 2
- James Golding was fastest in the Top Ten Shootout
As they cars undertook their formation lap for Race 11 Brodie Kostecki who was going to start 11th on the grid had to drive back to the pit lane with engine issues that the team couldn’t resolve. So the defending champ was out of the race even before it started.
James Golding started on pole position, a first in his Supercars career. Alongside him was Broc Feeney.
James Golding got the jump on Feeney off the start line and led into turn 1 for the first of 48 laps.
Between turns 2 and 3 Broc Feeney had a slide and it looked like he was going to turn himself around but somehow, he managed to regain control stay in position.
The gap between the two leaders was 0.186 seconds.
At turn 6 of lap 4 Broc Feeney took the race lead off James Golding. Mark Winterbottom also went through in one swift motion. As a result the polesitter went from 1st to 3rd in a heartbeat.
Will Brown moved up a spot to 5th place and Chaz Mostert who started 22nd on the grid had gained 6 places and now in 16th position.
Soon after Cooper Murray went off the track at turn 1 after getting a helping hand from Jaxson Evans. Evans received a 15 second time penalty for his helping hand.
A lap later Anton de Pasquale also ran off the track at turn 1 and dropped out of the top 10 down to 11th place.
The first car to pit was Ryan Wood on lap 16. A few laps later Matt Payne and Macauley Jones also pitted.
Broc Feeney had a 2.6 second lead over Mark Winterbottom.
The pole sitter, James Golding had slipped back to 7th place.
On lap 24 while Mark Winterbottom and Will Brown were in the pits Broc Feeney was left out on track to do the fastest lap of the race, 108.219 seconds. He had a lead of 8.4 seconds over Cameron Waters with 8 cars still to take their pit stop.
With 9 laps to go Broc Feeney still had the lead over Mark Winterbottom. Meanwhile Chaz Mostert who started 22nd on the grid was up to 7th place after passing 16 cars on track.
As they counted down the final laps the top 3 places were unchanged with Broc Feeney still in command with cars spread out.
There was no way they could catch Broc Feeney and he never let them gain on him all the way to the finish line. He took the win 8.6 seconds clear of Mark Winterbottom in second place, then it was 1 second back to Will Brown in third. It was an amazing finish.
Results for Race 11
1st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Mark Winterbottom – Team 18
3rd Will Brown – Red Bull Ampol Racing
In Race 12 Broc Feeney started on pole position with Brodie Kostecki alongside him.
Matt Payne had electrical problems and didn’t manage to make it out on track in time for the formation lap. The Grove Racing team managed to resolve the issue but had to start the final race of the weekend from the pit lane.
As they took off Broc Feeney got jump and led into turn 1 for the first of 48 laps. Brodie Kostecki had a bad start and Will Brown moved past him to take 2nd position.
As they made their way through lap 1 Andre Heimgartner hit the back of Cooper Murray’s car and bounced up and over the top of him. Bits of cars flew everywhere, both had extensive damage but were able to make their way back to the pits for repairs. The safety car was deployed so the debris could be cleared off the track.
The restart was on lap 4 but back in the pack there was chaos. The green ‘restart flag’ was waved at one only spot instead of the multiple locations around the track. The front runners could see it but the cars further back couldn’t. As engineers started communicating to their drivers that the race was green some drivers started to speed up but others were still uninformed and sticking to the safety speed limit of 80kmph. It was a mess and looked like there were going to be collisions in the confusion. Luckily, there were no incidents.
The leaders had a good lead on the rest of the pack. Will Brown was putting a lot of pressure on Broc Feeney, but he didn’t want to relinquish the lead.
Broc Feeney soon extended his lead out to 1.3 seconds. On lap 12 he had clear track and clocked the fastest lap of the race, 107.679 seconds.
The first 2 cars to pit were David Reynolds and Nick Percat on lap 18. They returned to the race in 23rd and 24th place.
At this stage Andre Heimgartner received a pit lane penalty for not maintaining the safety speed of 80kph after the incident during lap 1.
In the middle of the race Brodie Kostecki came into the pits from 3rd place and returned to the track in 11th place.
Broc Feeney came in on lap 26 which temporarily handed the lead to his teammate Will Brown. At this stage there were 10 cars yet to pit including Will Brown. Once those cars took their stops, Broc Feeney would assume the lead again.
Broc Feeney and Will Brown kept edging ahead of the pack. When the final car to pit peeled off the track the 2 Red Bull Ampol Racing cars assumed 1st and 2nd place with a gap of 2.4 second between Broc Feeney and Will Brown. Meanwhile Brodie Kostecki in 3rd position was 8.8 seconds behind.
Broc Feeney and Will Brown were not satisfied and with clear track increased their lead over the rest of the pack.
In the end they crossed the finish line 1.2 seconds apart but a phenomenal 17+ seconds ahead of Brodie Kostecki in 3rd place. It was a great finish to the weekend for the Red Bull Ampol Racing team.
Results for Race 12
1st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Will Brown – Red Bull Ampol Racing
3rd Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
Congratulations to Red Bull Ampol Racing. Their drivers Broc Feeney taking a win in both races for the event and Will Brown taking a 3rd and 2nd place.
Will Brown still leads the championship, but Broc Feeney’s double win closed the score gap to only 108 points.
The next event is the NTI Townsville 500 on 5th – 7th July 2024.
I hope you can join me. Until then, Live it, Breathe it, Dream it, Drive it!