Brown bangs wheels with country music star

Toowoomba’s Will Brown made a new on-track rival and off-track friend on Thursday, as the Triple Eight Supercars driver battled country music star Tyler Hubbard on the kart track at Queensland Raceway.

Hubbard forms one half of global superstar act Florida-Georgia Line, and is in Australia as a headline act at this weekend’s CMC Rocks festival, taking place at the Willowbank venue.

The multi-platinum artist released his debut solo album last year, and has already seen two of his singles reach No. 1 on the charts.

“It feels amazing to be here, it's been a little too long, so I'm happy to be here,” said Hubbard, who first visited Australia in 2016. “Me and my team, we've had a good time. Nice, beautiful, warm weather. So yeah, it feels good to be here.”

A self-confessed revhead, Hubbard was excited to get behind the wheel before taking the stage at one of Queensland’s top motorsport venues.

“It's too convenient,” he added. “We had to (come out here), so we're out here to have some fun. And like you said, anything with an engine that goes fast and,gives us a little rush, we're into it.”

Brown can also lay claim to No. 1, as he leads the Supercars standings after winning Race 2 at the Thrifty Bathurst 500 just over a fortnight ago.

“I didn't think he'd be that fast,” Brown said of his Thursday competition. “It was an awesome day to meet Tyler, it was fantastic. He's an absolute legend, really cool to meet him, but a pretty good on the track as well, we had a lot of fun.”

“I hope he doesn’t get me to do any singing or anything, because I will be absolutely terrible,” he joked. “Everyone knows I am. But no, he did an awesome job in the go kart, a lot of fun.”

A veteran attendee of CMC Rocks, Brown plans to be one of the tens of thousands expected at this weekend’s event, and has gladly accepted an offer to catch up with Hubbard behind the scenes on Saturday.

“It’s awesome,” he quipped. “I've got a lot of friends down here this weekend, camping out for the whole weekend. As you said, I did this a couple of years ago and it was absolutely awesome.

“So I'm lucky enough to be coming along Saturday night, and Tyler said he'll show me around, so absolutely stoked with that.”

Hubbard will take to the stage to wow fans this weekend at Queensland Raceway and CMC Rocks, while Brown will look to do the same next weekend as Supercars returns to action at the MSS Security Melbourne SuperSprint.

Supercars again races in support of the Formula One Australian Grand Prix, with four scheduled races and the Larry Perkins Trophy to be awarded to the highest scoring Supercars driver across the weekend.

Live coverage of the Melbourne SuperSprint can be found on Foxtel and Kayo, with on-track action beginning Thursday, March 21.