10 Super2 graduates who made it big in the main game
Broc Feeney is set to become the latest example of the Dunlop Super2 Series producing another main game talent.
Feeney has been confirmed as Jamie Whincup’s replacement at Red Bull Ampol Racing for 2022.
When the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship commences, Feeney will still be a teenager, highlighting Triple Eight’s extreme faith in the young driver.
However, if you look at how this year’s Super2 season has panned out, it’s no surprise as to why the team is confident Feeney can deliver.
He can become the latest in a long line of drivers who translated Super2 results into main game success.
Here are 10 development series drivers who made it big in the main game
Mark Winterbottom
Frosty won it all in 2003
Only eight drivers in history have won more ATCC/Supercars races than Winterbottom, who won the 2003 Konica V8 Supercar Series.
The previous year’s Formula Ford championship runner-up to Whincup, Winterbottom won on debut at Wakefield Park, and added wins in Adelaide and Eastern Creek.
He clinched the title at Winton, and took victory at the Mallala finale.
Only Winterbottom and Scott McLaughlin have won main game and development series titles.
Scott McLaughlin
McLaughlin won the 2012 title
McLaughlin did the same as Winterbottom - winning the development series title for Stone Brothers Racing - but did so nine years later.
McLaughlin made his debut as a teen in 2010, and was ages 19 years and 174 days when he won the 2012 title.
He made his enduro and solo main game debuts in the same year, the latter coming just after he clinched his title.
With Alex Premat suffering heat exhaustion on the Saturday, McLaughlin took over the second Garry Rogers Motorsport entry for the final main game race on the streets of Homebush.
Rogers gave McLaughlin a full-time drive for 2013, and he duly became the youngest ever race winner in Pukekohe.
A move to DJR Team Penske saw McLaughlin become the class of the field, winning 48 races and three titles for the Ford team between 2017 and 2020.
Chaz Mostert
Mostert is one of few Super2 race winners to win the Great Race
Mostert was in the famous ‘class of 2012’ in a season which also featured Nick Percat and Scott Pye.
Pye would finish 2012 as runner-up, but Mostert was just 23 points behind.
Within two years, Mostert was a Bathurst 1000 winner, and in 2015, firmed to claim a maiden Supercars title before injuries sustained in a Bathurst crash cut his season short.
Mostert won four races in the 2012 season, and was plucked from the early rounds of 2013 to drive a Dick Johnson Racing Falcon.
At Queensland Raceway, rookie Mostert claimed a stunning win - DJR’s first in three years - to again showcase the development series’ ability to produce main game-winning talent.
Nick Percat
Percat (R) had already won the big one before he made his DVS mark
Percat won six races in 2012, but he had already made his mark in the top tier with a stunning rookie victory at Mount Panorama alongside Garth Tander the previous year.
He finished second in the 2013 Porsche Carrera Cup Series, and was rewarded by the Walkinshaw fold with a full-time main game drive in 2014.
He has been a mainstay ever since, notably winning the 2016 Adelaide 500 for Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport, and two races in Sydney for current team Brad Jones Racing in 2020.
Cameron Waters
Waters dominated the 2015 season
Now Tickford Racing’s leading man, Waters truly made his mark in 2015 when he pieced together one of the most dominant seasons in development series history.
Waters won 10 of the 2015 season’s 16 races, and earned a full-time championship drive in 2016. In 2017, he won the Sandown 500 alongside Richie Stanaway.
He has steered a Monster Energy-backed car for the team ever since, and has already won three races in 2021.
Paul Dumbrell
Dumbrell's (L) biggest day came in 2012 in Bathurst
Dumbrell is the development series GOAT; his 41 race wins, 16 round wins and 14 pole positions stand alone.
He won a staggering 12 of 15 races en route to the 2002 title, and he also won the 2014 crown for Eggleston Motorsport.
Dumbrell was a main game regular for the bets part of a decade, and won his first race at Sandown in 2010.
It was as a co-driver for Whincup, however, where he showed his class. Dumbrell won the 2012 Bathurst 1000 and three Sandown 500s alongside Whincup between 2012 and 2018.
Dean Canto
Canto dominated the 2005 season Pic: AN1 Images
Only three drivers in history have won multiple development series titles: Dumbrell, Canto and Steve Owen.
Canto won the very first title in 2000 for his own team, and added title No. 2 in 2005 for Dick Johnson Racing.
He is second behind Dumbrell in race wins (21) with 10 of them coming in his run to the 2005 title.
He drove for GRM between 2006 and 2007, winning a reverse grid race in 2006 in Perth.
His greatest successes came as a Tickford Racing co-driver, winning alongside David Reynolds on the Gold Coast streets in 2013.
A year earlier, Reynolds narrowly missed out on taking the pair to a stunning Bathurst 1000 win, Reynolds denied by Whincup in a thriller.
Steve Owen
Owen (R) was a DVS and co-driver force Pic: AN1 Images
Owen won titles in 2008 and 2010, winning 20 races and 10 rounds in a decorated development series career.
He drove for the biggest teams in the main game as a co-driver, finishing second in Bathurst for Triple Eight (2010) and Tickford (2015).
He also won the 2015 Sandown 500 alongside Winterbottom, and twice on the Gold Coast with Whincup (2010) and Mostert (2017).
Jonathon Webb
The 2009 champ won the Great Race in 2016
Webb won the 2009 title in a canter, and rose to the main game in the DJR stable.
A shock win on the Homebush streets followed after rain wiped out the championship contenders.
His biggest successes came for his own team; he won on the Gold Coast with Shane van Gisbergen in 2014 and 2015.
A year later, Webb won the Bathurst 12 Hour, and added a Bathurst 1000 to his list of achievements.
Alongside Will Davison, Webb won the Great Race after long-time leader Whincup was penalised for his role in the infamous late-race redress incident.
Luke Youlden
Youlden (L) reached the summit in 2017
Youlden lost the 2004 development series title on countback to Andrew Jones, and was a co-driver gun-for-hire.
In 2017, his greatest success came alongside Reynolds at Mount Panorama.
Youlden and Reynolds helped Erebus Motorsport pull off a stunning Bathurst win in a seven-hour-long marathon punctuated by poor weather.
Youlden will return to partner Reynolds at Kelly Grove Racing in the Great Race later this year.
