Title contenders bemused after disappointing qualifying
Supercars
19 May
Broc Feeney, P2 in points, could only manage 12th in qualifying
Nick Percat and Matt Payne, P4 and P5 in points, also deep in the field
Points leader Will Brown qualified third, Cam Waters on pole
Three of the top five runners in the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship have been left scratching their heads after disappointing performances in Boost Mobile Qualifying for Race 10 in Perth.
Broc Feeney, Matt Payne, and Nick Percat were all knocked out in the second segment of qualifying in Perth, as points leader Will Brown continued his strong form.
Feeney in particular was dejected after being knocked out, and was at a loss to explain why teammate Brown had such an advantage over him.
“I’m not pumped, that’s me tapped out there at the moment,” admitted a shattered Feeney.
“It’s not where we want to be, obviously Will’s been pretty quick this weekend, but we’ve just been on the back foot and we have a bit of work to do.”
Though Feeney did get to the line in time for one final lap, the reigning Sandown 500 winner knew that it was a lost cause.
“Even on my second lap halfway through I started dropping off quite a bit, so that’s just what I had unfortunately.”
For Payne, who entered today fifth in the standings but tied on points with Percat ahead of him, he was left to rue a drop in pace between the first two segments of qualifying.
“In the first part we were pretty competitive and we set a pretty good time, but I don’t know, something went wrong there and I just wasn’t able to get the time out of it,” admitted the Kiwi.
“It’s frustrating, but we’re working hard and we’re going to see if we can try and fix it and have a better race car.”
The reigning Adelaide 500 winner also admitted he’s still chasing a setup for the car, but believes he’s been hurt more by the tight margins in Perth.
“It’s a little bit of a balance thing. I think with this track the times are so close that you have to be extracting everything out of it, and I think we’ve just been too inconsistent this weekend.”
Whilst Payne was optimistic, Percat was left to rue a missed opportunity as his Bendix Camaro plummeted down the timesheets from the first segment to sit 18th on the grid.
“We were second in Q1, half a tenth off the quickest, and then I’m not sure what’s happened,” said a puzzled Percat.
“We haven’t changed the car, well we did a little change, but not to the extent of being 18th. The Q1 car, I thought we were honestly going to be pole, it was really, really good.”
“We’ll have a look through the data and make sure nothing has moved, the cars cop a pretty big whack through the last kerb onto the [pit] straight, but that just shows you what Supercars is.”
Cam Waters claimed the Boost Mobile Pole Award, and will start alongside yesterday’s race winner Chaz Mostert for Race 10, which gets underway at 3:45pm AWST/5:45pm AEST.
