Brown withstands Feeney blowtorch in wild Ipswich sprint

Will Brown has christened his 150th Supercars race with victory at the Century Batteries Ipswich Super 440, after Broc Feeney was penalised for a false start.

The reigning champion shadowed Feeney through the first stint, with the Repco Sprint Cup winner-elect dropping behind through the stops.

The Red Bull Ampol Chevrolets were the class of the field, Brown finishing nine seconds clear of Ryan Wood, who claimed his second podium in as many starts.

Brown's margin of victory, his first since Melbourne in March, was 0.8842s, with Wood 9.8118s down in third.

"It's great to get a win finally, it's been a fair while now and to be honest, it's not really the way we want to do it," said Brown.

"Unfortunately Broc got a jump start there, but I'm a race car driver and I'm selfish so I'll take that win. Stoked for our side of the garage to get a win, everyone in the garage, everyone in our team, everyone did a fantastic job.

"The cars were super fast then, we were able to gap a lot of the field and then work with our strategy, and we knew Broc had a five second penalty but he's super fast, he's hard to beat this weekend.

"He's been hard to beat this year, but he's doing a fantastic job. I wasn't going to let him past that's for sure, he's had enough wins this year."

The race was headlined by a dramatic first corner crash that saw Jaxon Evans and Jack Le Brocq consigned to DNFs, Aaron Cameron left in the gravel trap, and Brodie Kostecki forced into the garage.

As Feeney crept forward, Wood missed the start as the lights went out, and dropped behind the Mobil 1 Truck Assist Ford. Richie Stanaway threatened to demote Wood further, only to take to the grass and slot into fifth.

Behind was total chaos; Matt Payne and Thomas Randle pinched Cooper Murray, whose car caught air. Sliding down to Turn 1, Murray was caught by Cameron, who spun in front of the field.

Several cars were caught up; notably, Kostecki, Le Brocq and Evans were forced into the garage, with Randle and Murray brought in for checks. Kostecki suffered front bar damage, with Le Brocq losing his rear wing amid panel damage.

The race restarted on lap 4, and Feeney's start was noted by Race Control. After an investigation, Feeney was hit with a five-second penalty, and the points leader was adamant over team radio he hadn't jumped the start.

A fired-up Feeney set the fastest lap on lap 9, and pulled 1.3s clear of his teammate by lap 13. Wood was a lonely third as Cam Waters piled pressure on Stanaway, who was holding up the chasing pack.

Payne and Bryce Fullwood were taken out of traffic on lap 13, with Anton De Pasquale stopping from eighth on the following lap. Having failed to clear Stanaway, Waters fell into the clutches of Chaz Mostert, and was pulled in from fifth on lap 21. Fullwood and De Pasquale emerged ahead, with Stanaway and Mostert stopping in response.

Feeney's lead approached two seconds when Wood was brought in on lap 23. On the following lap, Feeney stopped and took his penalty, and emerged just ahead of Fullwood.

Brown was brought in and emerged ahead of Feeney, who quickly closed on his teammate. Fullwood was effective third ahead of De Pasquale, with Wood, Waters and Payne just behind.

As De Pasquale and Wood picked off Fullwood and began to battle, Wood getting by on lap 30, Brown responded to Feeney's pressure. Both drivers recorded their fastest laps of the race on lap 28, with Brown marginally faster.

Fullwood began to drop like a stone, first being picked off by Waters and Payne on lap 34, before Mostert and Stanaway both got by. A lock-up helped Reynolds by, before Davison demoted Fullwood to 11th in the closing stages.

Fullwood came home 11th after starting 24th, while wildcards Zach Bates and Cameron Crick finished 17th and 21st.

Supercars return to the track on Sunday for Boost Mobile Qualifying at 10:20am AEST, followed by the Top Ten Shootout (11:40am AEST) and Race 25 (3:15pm AEST). Live coverage commences on Foxtel/Kayo from 8:00am AEST.