Bathurst 1000 – Warm Up & Race 20 Results
Will Brown/Scott Pye – Car #87
Warm Up – First (2:06.6553)
Race 20 – Third
Drivers’ Championship Standings – First (2538 points)
“I thought we had a pretty good pace until that last stint, and they just drove away from me. So that was a bit disappointing, but no, it wasn’t too bad all weekend. Still in the top 5. I seem to be good at getting podiums, and not wins, but that’s good. These guys were just so fast. They did such a good job. That last stint, the pace was on, and they were extremely fast. But overall, happy to do it again. It’s a tough one, Bathurst. I feel like you come third in Tasmania, and you’re probably happy. But you come third at Bathurst, it’s bittersweet and it’s probably the same for the 88 guys as well. But congratulations to Brodie and Todd. We said after Bathurst, we would start looking at the championship. So, I’m sure it’s a good plan, but I still want to win races. We’ve got Gold Coast and Adelaide coming up, and they are two great events. I don’t want to run around and just try and get points, because that’s generally how you lose the championship. We’ll go out and race as hard as we can at those events and see what happens. It’s only a couple of weeks, and we’re at the Gold Coast. It’ll come around quickly. We will just take it as it comes, that’s what we’ve done all year. And it’s a tough one. I haven’t been in this position in the Supercars Championship, but in lower divisions, I have been. And I think if you start thinking about championships and driving defensively, something generally goes wrong.”
“Unfortunately, we just didn’t have the pace of the front two, they were just very fast today. But we did what we could throughout the day. I think our pace compared to the guys behind us was really comfortable, but it’s a good feeling to be on the podium, no doubt. Obviously, I’d love to win this race, I really, really want to win this race, but the most important thing when you look back on today, is that Will can go home, capitalise on the next two events, and win the championship. I’d be very proud to say I was a part of that. To get a win at Sandown was great, and to be a part of Triple Eight Race Engineering and Red Bull Ampol Racing is a pinch-yourself for me. I’ve spent every day on track with Jamie who is a hero of mine, the team is so impressive, so overall it’s been a very good enduro campaign.”
Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup – Car #88
Warm Up – Second (2:07.0155)
Race 20 – Second
Drivers’ Championship Standings – Second (2334 points)
Teams Championship Standings – First (4842 points)
“It feels it feels good to be on the podium. Obviously, you want to win. So, we’ve come up a bit short today, but as I said to the team, I certainly drove my heart out, out there. I’m absolutely knackered. I haven’t driven so hard and as Brodie said, so fast for so many laps. We didn’t make any mistakes today. We tried our hardest, and we’ve come up a bit short. But it was so much fun racing these guys, the level that they’re at, and the level we had to drive at for the last 500 kilometers was insane. It’s good to bounce back. I was in a sort of similar position last year. I was in 2nd place with about 30 laps to go, closing in on the leader. Thankfully this time, I kept going. The goal’s still to stand on the top step here, but it’s great to stand up on the podium and to have a day where you feel like you’ve sort of done all that you could.”
“I think a lot of people on the outside would be looking in, thinking it’s been a pretty straightforward race. But, for anyone who knows or is on the inside, there’s just a little bit of awe around the pace of Broc and Brodie at the end there. It was that was qualifying lap after qualifying lap. We all have a massive appreciation for that. We went and did the best we could. Erebus tweaked the car in the last stint, which sort of made the difference. As I said a couple of days ago, I’m a motorsport enthusiast, so I like to see the best team win, and that happened today. Brodie’s had a tough year. Todd’s a battler, and it’s a really good story that those guys had the most pace and won the race today. It was a good day, they all did a solid job, and I’m appreciative of my crew and the job that Broc certainly did for us.”
