Supercars New Zealand: Brown extends championship lead with race two victory

Under threatening skies that never delivered any rain until the cooldown lap, the duo locked into 1-2 formation from about half-race distance as any challengers dropped back.

It enabled Brown to take his third win of the season after forcing his way past his team-mate with eight laps to run.

“I was trying not to use the front bar, awesome racing, that is what it was all about,” said a smiling Brown after coming out on top of a tense battle.

“I locked the rears and I just got around. I might have touched him once, it was hard to resist. That was the best race of my life!”

“We put on a good show for the crowd,” said Feeney, who started second on the grid.

“Will had a lot of speed today. Wet conditions, we were learning, we learned a lot, The main job was to do a reset and get on with it today.”

Will Brown, Red Bull Ampol Racing, GM Camaro

Will Brown, Red Bull Ampol Racing, GM Camaro

Photo by: Edge Photographics

Anton de Pasquale backed up his Saturday podium finish with a strong third place for Dick Johnson Racing, his second podium of the weekend giving him the Jason Richards Trophy, named for the former V8 Supercars racer who passed away after a battle with cancer in 2011, aged just 35.

Home favourite Matt Payne just missed out on the podium in fourth place for Grove Racing, despite having taken pole position earlier in the day ahead of Feeney. The two 21-year-olds made it the youngest front row of any grid in Supercars.

James Golding took fifth place for PremiAir Racing, backing up a fine seventh in Saturday’s wet race, keep just clear of Heimgartner who was closing fast in the Brad Jones Chevrolet after starting 11th on the grid.

The New Zealander only just fell short of backing up his Saturday win with enough points to take the Jason Richards Trophy, but his weekend’s results did vault him up nine spots to eighth in the championship standings.

Chaz Mostert was seventh after threatening for a podium result before fading, having lost six places on the opening lap and then endure further frustration when his Walkinshaw Andretti United Chevrolet was delayed by a slow first pitstop.

Jack Le Brocq was eighth and once again had the better of his Erebus Motorsport team-mate Brodie Kostecki, who qualified strongly in third, but faded to 12th in the race.

With the win Brown stretches his lead in the points to 71 over Feeney, with Mostert in third but now 196 behind the leader.

The next round will take the teams from the eastern-most circuit in the series to the western-most, at Perth’s Wanneroo Raceway, on 18-19 May.

Supercars New Zealand – Race 2 results