Feeney eyes podium after career-best

Broc Feeney has cast his gaze to a first Supercars podium after recording his first top five finish.

Feeney finished fifth in the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint opener behind winning teammate Shane van Gisbergen.

The rookie started third for the race, and was passed by van Gisbergen early.

Van Gisbergen’s win was the 14th for Triple Eight in the last 18 Tasmania races.

Having tasted the front-running, Feeney feels armed to join his teammate in the fight for trophies.

It comes after he encountered a bruising start to full-time life in Sydney.

"My first Supercars top five is a pretty good feeling,” said Feeney, who is making his first ever trip to Tasmania.

“But I still want to be up with the other boys on the podium and hopefully that’s coming soon.

"There’s still a lot to learn here; race craft, where to make moves and how to look after the car during the race, but we’re still learning.

"I got a little bit beaten up during the race because I didn’t put myself in the right positions.

“But only a few hours ago I’d never done a lap of this track, so to finish P5 today is pretty good.”

Two positions behind Feeney was Team 18 driver Scott Pye, who crossed the line seventh behind Anton De Pasquale.

Feeney and Pye battled in the early laps as van Gisbergen muscled past the leaders.

It marked Pye’s first top 10 finish of the season, although it loomed to be a top five.

It was a tougher day for teammate Mark Winterbottom, who was penalised over a late-race incident.

"We were up in the top five for a lot of the race but unfortunately that front-right tyre just wasn’t our friend today and we dropped back to seventh with a couple of laps to go,” Pye said.

"I had a really cool battle with [Andre] Heimgartner around the last corner and across the chequered flag but we managed to just hang in there.

"The crew did a huge job today, massive effort from them and really happy to get on the board now and get our championship hopefully back on track.

"We’ll give it a little tune-up for tomorrow to try and get that tyre to last a bit longer and stay at the pointy-end to hopefully bring a strong result home for everyone."

Cars will return to the track on Sunday for dual qualifying sessions from 10:35am AEDT. CLICK HERE to purchase your tickets.

Every session of the event will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 506 and streamed on Kayo.

The Seven Network will broadcast highlights on Saturday and Sunday.