Round 3 – Supercars Championship
TAUPŌ, New Zealand – In what was a wild outing for the Supercars Championship in Taupō for Round 3 of the 2024 series, Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Will Brown has extended his points lead in the category after a successful race weekend.
Presenting as a blank slate for those up and down the pitlane, drivers and teams were faced with a single 90-minute practice session to acclimatise to the layout on Friday before qualifying and racing commenced on Saturday. This session would prove pivotal to acquiring data for the upcoming races, and a chance to dial in the #87 Camaro.
Brown and the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team achieved comfort early, with the championship leader earning his way into the top-ten shootout on Saturday, where he would post a lap time that secured him P2.
The rain came down for Race 7 of the Championship, which presented another curveball for the category as each team scrambled to get the setup right for the drivers. For the Red Bull Ampol Racing crew, high tyre pressures saw the team struggle in the slippery conditions, with Brown salvaging a ninth-place finish to bank points towards the championship.
The sun was peeking through the clouds as drivers arrived at the circuit on Sunday, with conditions set to be a little more predictable than the previous day’s racing. With lap times separated by the slightest of margins, Brown posted the fifth fastest time in the single lap sprint in the shootout, citing a mistake at turn 11 hampering his chances to be further up.
Showtime for the final 60-lap affair in Taupō saw Brown showcase why he currently wears the orange numbers, as the #87 went to work by slicing his way through the field, before sitting on the rear bumper of his teammate with 15 laps remaining.
With great mid-corner pace, Brown was biding his time as he latched onto his #88 stablemate, showing a wheel at each corner before completing a decisive move, and capturing victory after one of the category’s greatest battles in recent memory.
After his New Zealand success, Brown extends his points lead to 71 as the series heads to Western Australia for Round 4 in just under a month.
“It was a special weekend for us, not only to win the race on Sunday but being back in New Zealand is awesome,” recalled Brown. “It was a tight track when we came here a couple of weeks ago to test and I didn’t know what the racing would be like, but to come here and have such a great battle for the lead was unreal. Even though I was battling against Broc (Feeney),
the fans want to see a tight, hard race and I was trying to put that on for them. The track produced a lot better racing than I thought it would, and I’m sure on TV it would’ve looked great. I’m not sure what was going on in the pits as I’m sure the guys were a little bit nervous. It was very hard to make the pass on Broc – there were not heaps of passing opportunities and I had
to set it up. I was stuck behind him for a while so I was starting to get hot tyres, but I just got the job done and luckily we didn’t collide. I think it was great racing and an awesome experience to get the win, and overall it was a great weekend here in Taupō.”