Brown recounts 'disappointing' Adelaide crash
Will Brown labels Shane van Gisbergen crash as "disappointing"
Van Gisbergen hit Brown, who collided with Anton De Pasquale
Van Gisbergen was fighting for title with Brown's teammate Brodie Kostecki
Will Brown has labelled his championship-deciding lap 1 crash with Shane van Gisbergen at the VAILO Adelaide 500 as “disappointing”.
Brown bounced off the Turn 4 wall into the path of van Gisbergen after a run-in with Shell V-Power Racing Team driver Anton De Pasquale.
Van Gisbergen, unsighted behind Cam Waters (#43 Red Bull Ampol Camaro), clouted Brown’s #9 Coca-Cola Camaro. Both Camaros were out, with De Pasquale carrying on.
The incident ended van Gisbergen’s championship hopes, with Brown’s Erebus Motorsport teammate Brodie Kostecki clinching the title.
With van Gisbergen out, Kostecki needed only a race finish to secure the championship title with a day to spare, and came home a conservative sixth as Cam Waters claimed victory.
"It’s just one of those things. Everyone blocks on the inside and if you can’t make it up the inside, you know everyone banks up, so I went for the outside,” Brown said.
“I knew I had good overlap, I would have tucked in behind him if I wasn’t at least completely next to him. I thought he would have been able to see me, and knew I was completely there but obviously not.
“I’m not going to judge it too much — he probably just thought he’d run me a bit wide and I ended up in the fence that hard and unfortunately took out one of the championship leaders as well.
“Tough day, I think we had a fast car for today. It’s a bit disappointing but in the end, that’s racing, there’s not much I can do about it.”
Brown said he had hand soreness, with Race Control later advising that no further action will be taken over the crash.
“My left hand was quite sore — it’s a little bit sore now but it’s not too bad,” Brown said.
“Obviously, the car’s completely, uh, damaged – I won’t say the word I was going to use – it’s really disappointing. Obviously, Shane just couldn’t see when Cam was there and just ran up the back of me.
“Disappointing, I think I probably should have been left a little bit more room there, I reckon I was completely up the outside and he could see me, but it is what it is."
Brown also said he had no hard feelings towards De Pasquale: “Anton’s not a bad bloke.
"Everyone does that every now and then. It is what it is.”
