Round 11 – Supercars Championship
Gold Coast, Queensland – Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Will Brown has re-affirmed his spot atop the 2024 Supercars Championship standings, capturing a well-earned podium position in Race 22 after what was a challenging Saturday for the Queenslander.
Known as the Concrete Jungle due to its proximity to the barriers in the heart of Surfers Paradise, the Gold Coast 500 circuit is highly challenging and equally demanding, as Brown would experience during the opening qualifying session on Saturday after a promising Friday.
Brown would put his Red Bull Ampol Racing Chevrolet Camaro dubbed ‘Rhonda’ into the wall during the closing stages of Saturday’s qualifying session, with the crew rallying together to get the #87 back into racing condition come the afternoon.
Due to the incident, Brown would lose his fast lap time, leaving him outside the top ten and beginning Race 22 from P11.
With the championship in mind, Brown pieced together a fantastic performance to minimise the damage, racing up into seventh position after 85 laps on Saturday.
Sunday would prove to be a better day for the championship leader, who would make a statement in qualifying by posting the second-fastest lap time in the shootout, signalling his intent to fight for a surfboard despite the pressure of the points lead.
As the green flag flew for Race 22, Brown held firm in second position, tucked right onto the wheel of the race leader. With clean pit stops thanks to the Red Bull Ampol Racing crew, Brown, despite immense pressure from teammate (Broc) Feeney in behind, kept his nerve, bringing home the #87 in second position after 250 km.
With now one round left to run in the 2024 series in Adelaide, Brown will be aiming to capture his maiden Supercars Championship in his debut season as part of the Red Bull Ampol Racing team in Adelaide, on November 14-17.
“Great weekend here on the Gold Coast in the end. Today’s race was a nail-biter between the four of us, seeing who would blink first and none of us did, we were all on our game. It’s so much fun to race the boys like that, and to come out of here with a surfboard is mega. This track is tough and can bite you hard, we saw that on Saturday, so to come away with good points towards the championship and a podium is all we could really ask for. Onto Adelaide!”
