Van Gisbergen, Feeney explain comfort battles

Shane van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney “never really got comfortable” during a Bathurst 12 Hour that slipped away from Triple Eight.

Feeney crossed the line fifth, albeit a lap down, in Triple Eight's #888 Supercheap Auto Mercedes-AMG.

Van Gisbergen, Feeney and Maximilian Gotz were a feature on Sunday, but never landed a killer blow.

The #888 led after three hours after a turbulent opening stanza, and loomed as a race-winning threat.

A trying middle stint for van Gisbergen was followed by a drive-through penalty over a pit infringement.

Gotz and Feeney finished the day off, but fifth was the best the team could muster despite a Mercedes-AMG one-three result.

SunEnergy1 Racing and GruppeM Racing finished first and third outright.

Feeney was second in Saturday’s Shootout, but admitted neither driver had enough laps in practice to truly get settled.

"It’s been a tough weekend,” Feeney said.

"We had limited practice laps so it’s been hard for all three of us to get comfortable in the car.

"Today we just struggled for race pace quite a lot.

"Maxi was really strong off the start this morning and during the first couple of stints, but then we faded a lot during the day.

“The change made the car much better so we were a lot more comfortable after that.

"At the end, our pace was pretty similar to the guys on the podium, but we took too long to get there. Next year, we’ll hopefully be more competitive.”

The #888 was beaten to fourth by the #32 Team WRT BMW of Dries Vanthoor/Sheldon van der Linde/Charles Weerts.

There was joy in the Triple Eight garage, with the Jamie Whincup/Richie Stanaway/Prince Jefri Ibrahim entry scoring a Pro-Am podium.

Van Gisbergen has happy to see the end of a “difficult” weekend but was pleased for the sister #99 entry.

"I never really got comfortable in the car, so today I tried my best but I didn’t have any speed on my side.

"Fifth is hard to be happy about but it’s still an okay result. It was a long day, it’s hard to put into words.

"My teammates put in the hard yards and did a solid job, so I have to thank them.

"On the Car 99 side of the garage, it was great for them to come away with a class podium."

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship will commence in Newcastle on March 10-12.

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