Supercars Bathurst 500: Brown holds off Mostert to score Sunday win

Brown and Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert played a game of cat and mouse during most of the 40 lap race, Mostert cementing his early lead while Brown played the long game, setting up a shorter second pitstop to seize the lead with 10 laps to go. He went on to win by 1.55s.

“It means a lot, the first round with the new team,” said Brown after the race.

“I had Chaz pushing me along but I was able to save the tyres and get through to the end. I was glad to get out in front of him, he was so quick down the hill.”

Mostert was disappointed but philosophical after two podium results.

“I am a little bit gutted, I knew I had about two seconds lead and I locked a wheel at the Chase,” said Mostert, who was in his first weekend of working with the new race engineer in Sam Scaffidi.

“But if you told me I could have had two podiums, I would have taken it. That is all I had in the end.”

Third was Saturday race winner Broc Feeney, who started from pole position but whose winning hopes were dealt a blow when he received a five-second pitlane penalty after a clash with James Golding on the opening lap.

Feeney, who was just 1.1s from second place after 40 laps, was apologetic over the early race clash.

“Unfortunately, apologies to him. There was a gap there and I went for it,” said Feeney, who lamented his bad starts in both races.

“A great weekend overall for the team. They [the starts] have been a shocker for us unfortunately, our qualifying pace is great. Hopefully we can improve that for the future.”

The first critical moment in the battle between the top three came in qualifying. Feeney took pole in the Top 10 Shootout, 0.09s ahead of Mostert, Brown and James Golding. At the start, from the racing line side of the track, Mostert and Golding bolted away while the Red Bull cars struggled.

But Mostert was hampered at his second stop. The intended front-right wheel would not go on and the WAU crew grabbed a used, backup tyre. That lost two seconds and when he resumed, Brown (who took eight litres less fuel at his stop) was in front of him.

There was a great battle outside the top three, Tickford Racing’s Thomas Randle holding out a recovering Golding and David Reynolds, who performed miracles to make the Top 10 Shootout in a single lap in the Team18 Camaro. Golding did well to recover to fifth after dropping to eighth after the clash with Feeney.

Behind came the Grove Racing Mustang Matt Payne, whose progress was aided by an early pitstop, and Jack Le Brocq’s Erebus Chevrolet. Nick Percat (Matt Stone Racing Chevrolet) and Will Davison (Dick Johnson Racing Mustang) rounded out the top 10.

Once again it was a tough raceday for Cameron Waters, who qualified 18th and finished 16th in Tickford Racing’s Ford Mustang.

After the opening two races Brown leads the points with 288 from Feeney on 279 and Mostert on 267. With 567 points Triple Eight leads the teams' points by 201 from Grove Racing, meaning that the Red Bull cars will take over the first garage in the next round under Supercars’ controversial new ‘Live’ pitlane.

The Supercars teams will reconvene in four weeks’ time at the Albert Park Grand Prix circuit in Melbourne on 21-24 March.

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	Retirement	Points
1	W. Brown Triple Eight Race Engineering		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	1:27'19.156			150
2	C. Mostert Walkinshaw Andretti United		Ford Mustang GT	40	+1.553 1:27'20.709	1.553		138
3	B. Feeney Triple Eight Race Engineering		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+2.730 1:27'21.886	1.177		129
4	T. Randle Tickford Racing		Ford Mustang GT	40	+22.683 1:27'41.839	19.953		120
5	J. Golding PremiAir Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+24.041 1:27'43.197	1.358		111
6	D. Reynolds Team 18		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+26.271 1:27'45.427	2.230		102
7	M. Payne Grove Racing		Ford Mustang GT	40	+27.357 1:27'46.513	1.086		96
8	J. Le Brocq Erebus Motorsport Penrite		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+34.917 1:27'54.073	7.560		90
9	N. Percat Matt Stone Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+35.249 1:27'54.405	0.332		84
10	W. Davison Dick Johnson Racing		Ford Mustang GT	40	+42.616 1:28'01.772	7.367		78
11	R. Stanaway Grove Racing		Ford Mustang GT	40	+42.884 1:28'02.040	0.268		72
12	B. Fullwood Brad Jones Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+43.629 1:28'02.785	0.745		69
13	T. Hazelwood Erebus Motorsport Penrite		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+45.432 1:28'04.588	1.803		66
14	M. Winterbottom Team 18		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+46.286 1:28'05.442	0.854		63
15	A. De Pasquale Dick Johnson Racing		Ford Mustang GT	40	+56.112 1:28'15.268	9.826		60
16	C. Waters Tickford Racing		Ford Mustang GT	40	+58.016 1:28'17.172	1.904		57
17	T. Slade PremiAir Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+1'00.425 1:28'19.581	2.409		54
18	A. Heimgartner Brad Jones Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+1'00.595 1:28'19.751	0.170		51
19	J. Courtney Blanchard Racing Team		Ford Mustang GT	40	+1'11.779 1:28'30.935	11.184		48
20	M. Jones Brad Jones Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+1'11.926 1:28'31.082	0.147		45
21	J. Evans Brad Jones Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+2'13.319 1:29'32.475	1'01.393		42
22	A. Love Blanchard Racing Team		Ford Mustang GT	37	+3 Laps 1:28'43.868	3 Laps		39
23	C. Hill Matt Stone Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	31	+9 Laps 1:27'40.032	6 Laps		36
	R. Wood Walkinshaw Andretti United		Ford Mustang GT	7			Retirement
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