How Finals is motivating Brown's championship defence
Finals motivating Will Brown's championship defence
Brown would have won 2024 title if Finals rules were used
Triple Eight driver beat teammate Broc Feeney last year
Will Brown may enter 2025 as the hunted, but the reigning Supercars champion isn’t overwhelmed by the biggest change of all — the Finals.
The Triple Eight Race Engineering took the conventional path to championship glory last year, scoring more points than any other driver as the chequered flag fell on the 24th and final race.
It all changes this year, with the new-for-2025 Finals Series to decide the drivers’ champion across the final three rounds.
Drivers have to perform across the first eight Sprint Cup rounds and the two Enduro Cup races, and could seal passage into the Finals by winning either.
From there, the highest remaining point-scorers will complete a field of 10 that will battle for the championship in seven races across three elimination-style events.
For Brown, though, the Finals presents another opportunity to establish himself as the best in the field, given he would have won the 2024 title with either the conventional or Finals format.
"It's not easy to win a championship, let alone stay number one,” the Queenslander said after receiving Toowoomba’s highest citizen honour last week.
"But biggest thing for us, we've had a change in the championship this year with how our points system works. So really it goes down to four cars that can win the championship in the last round. Um, so it's going to make it tougher.
“But with the new format, we would have won the championship last year no matter what. So, that gives us a bit of confidence going into this year.”
Had the 2025 rules been applied to the 2025 season finale, Brown would have led a quartet of Broc Feeney, Cam Waters and Matt Payne into Adelaide. Totalling results from both races, Brown would have won the title.
The 2025 journey begins in Sydney, where Brown claimed his maiden Supercars race win as a 23-year-old rookie in 2021. Last year, despite Triple Eight being off the pace, he scored a Sunday podium, one of 19 in his title-winning season.
The 26-year-old is hoping he can mirror his Round 1 performance of 2024, where he finished second and first at Mount Panorama.
“I'm excited starting in Sydney, I think this year will be awesome, we do a night race there, generally put on a great show,” said Brown, who will run the champion's #1 in 2025.
“I'm keen to get back into a Supercar and back down to Sydney Motorsport Park. Hopefully we can have a really good event there. Last year [at Round 1], we came first and second in the first event at Bathurst.
“If we could head out of the first round like that, I'd be super happy."
