Points leader Brown's new objective
Will Brown has a "new lease of life" as championship leader, but with it comes the objective of staying out of trouble as he aims to keep the orange numbers.
For the first time in his career, Erebus Motorsport driver Brown arrives at an event atop the Supercars drivers’ standings.
Brown snatched the lead from teammate Brodie Kostecki midway through the NTI Townsville 500 when the latter suffered mechanical issues.
While Erebus maintains a one-two in the standings, both championships have tightened as Red Bull Ampol Racing continues to chip away.
Broc Feeney and Shane van Gisbergen are just 26 and 72 points behind respectively with 1825 points to be won in the final six rounds,
Erebus also enjoyed a 276-point lead over Triple Eight in the teams’ championship, but that has been whittled down to 91 points.
"I’m feeling as good as ever to be leading the championship," Brown told 7News Toowoomba.
"Now I think you get a new lease of life [as points leader]. If you asked me that at the start of the year, I would have been pretty stoked.
"But it’s not over yet. It's so tight up in the top four of us — it’s the tightest it's been in years."
Brown is right — under the 300-point system, which was introduced in 2008, the top two have never been closer through six rounds.
The 243-point margin from Brown to Chaz Mostert in fifth, meanwhile, has led to the closest top five since 2016 — and Andre Heimgartner is just seven points behind Mostert.
Slip-ups have already proven costly this season, with Kostecki surrendering a 109-point lead due to a number of incidents and mechanical problems.
Brown himself has also struck trouble, but did so early in the season when he crashed out at Albert Park while battling Mostert.
There, however, the win was worth 75 points. In Sydney, the two races are worth 150 points for the winner, meaning staying out of trouble is key — a point reiterated by Craig Lowndes.
"It’s such an important round in the context of the championship," Lowndes wrote in his exclusive Supercars.com column.
"It’s crazy close, and with 150 points on offer for the winner, any slip-ups could prove extremely costly.
"Given we’re past halfway in the season, the Erebus and Triple Eight boys will have to start thinking about accumulating points and making the best of bad situations.
"There’s always plenty of contact at Turns 2, 3 and 4 on the first lap, and we’ve seen already how easy it is to pick up damage and ruin your race."
Brown added: "Brodie's been really consistent, he’s done a good job.
"He got a little bit unfortunate or unlucky at Townsville, so that was able to see me jump him in the championship.
"I've just got to keep it clean this weekend, try not to get in any prangs, and just try and qualify well and try and win another race."
Supercars will hit the track for the first time on Saturday for Practice 1 at 12:15pm local time/AEST.
