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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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
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	W. Brown Triple Eight Race Engineering		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+0.390 1:36'16.334	0.390		138
3	C. Mostert Walkinshaw Andretti United		Ford Mustang GT	40	+1.132 1:36'17.076	0.742		129
4	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	N. Percat Matt Stone Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+3.086 1:36'19.030	0.823		102
7	B. Fullwood Brad Jones Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+3.943 1:36'19.887	0.857		96
8	D. Reynolds Team 18		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+4.383 1:36'20.327	0.440		90
9	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	T. Hazelwood Erebus Motorsport Penrite		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+6.016 1:36'21.960	0.420		72
12	M. Winterbottom Team 18		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+6.925 1:36'22.869	0.909		69
13	J. Le Brocq Erebus Motorsport Penrite		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+8.429 1:36'24.373	1.504		66
14	T. Randle Tickford Racing		Ford Mustang GT	40	+8.847 1:36'24.791	0.418		63
15	J. Courtney Blanchard Racing Team		Ford Mustang GT	40	+9.717 1:36'25.661	0.870		60
16	W. Davison Dick Johnson Racing		Ford Mustang GT	40	+10.316 1:36'26.260	0.599		57
17	T. Slade PremiAir Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+10.851 1:36'26.795	0.535		54
18	J. Golding PremiAir Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+11.634 1:36'27.578	0.783		51
19	M. Jones Brad Jones Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+12.367 1:36'28.311	0.733		48
20	J. Evans Brad Jones Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	40	+12.752 1:36'28.696	0.385		45
21	A. De Pasquale Dick Johnson Racing		Ford Mustang GT	40	+13.840 1:36'29.784	1.088		42
22	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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