Red flag heaps pressure on Supercars leader Brown
Jacob Shteyman |
Broc Feeney will be looking to close the gap on Triple Eight teammate Will Brown after claiming pole for the opening race of the Tasmania Supersprint.
Sitting third in the Supercars standings, Feeney (1593 pts) smoked the rest of the grid with the only sub-51 second lap of the final round of qualifying at Symmons Plains Raceway on Saturday.
Championship leader Brown (1746 pts) will start way back at 15th in the grid after bowing out in round two of qualifying.
The Triple Eight young gun was on track for a top-10 time before the red flag cut short his final attempt at a hot lap.
Thomas Randle was the culprit as he took his Tickford Racing Mustang too wide in the final corner and onto the sodden grass.
“Yeah, it’s a bit disappointing. We were trending really well, but that happens, red flags,” Brown said.
“We wouldve been in the top 10, but that’s life. So you have to just do a good job this arvo and make some points.”
He’ll be hoping for a better start than in race 14 in Townsville, the last time he started in the back half of the grid, when he crashed out in the first lap from 17th place.
Since Brown’s tricky weekend at Reid Park, Chaz Mostert (1641 pts) has taken advantage to close the gap.
The Walkinshaw Andretti United man will start in fifth and will be hunting a third straight race win.
The pace was quicker than Friday’s practice despite tricky wet-dry conditions sticking around on the 2.4km circuit from the morning’s downpour.
PremiAir Nulon Racing’s Tim Slade recovered to set up a ninth-place start after hitting a puddle at turn two in the opening round of qualifying and ploughing into the paddock.
Tickford’s Cam Waters will start in second place, while last year’s championship winner Brodie Kostecki will round out the top three.
Kostecki will be keeping a close eye on Waters after the pair came into contact early on in last year’s opening race in the Apple Isle, knocking the Erebus speedster out of contention.
Team 18 veteran David Reynolds just missed out on the top 10, after an impressive start to the weekend.
Race 17, the first of two 55-lap sprints around Symmons, will kick off at 4.10pm local time.
Tasmania SuperSprint Qualifying Results:
1. Broc Feeney (Triple Eight Race Engineering) 50.988
2. Cam Waters (Tickford Racing) +0.082
3. Brodie Kostecki (Erebus Motorsport) +0.087
4. Nick Percat (Matt Stone Racing) +0.136
5. Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United) +0.162
AAP
