Brown explains costly Gold Coast qualifying crash
Will Brown triggers pile up and red flag in Boost Mobile Qualifying for Race 21 at Surfers Paradise
Championship leader caught out by rear brake locking at turn eleven
Brown bumped from Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout, will start this afternoon's race from 11th
Repco Supercars Championship leader Will Brown has been left to rue a costly error in Boost Mobile Qualifying for Race 21 of the season at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.
Running seventh at the time of the accident, Brown locked his rear wheels entering turn eleven on his final qualifying run and smacked into the tyre wall, bouncing back onto the racing line.
Matt Payne was the first car onto the scene and avoided Brown's stricken Camaro, as did Ryan Wood, whilst James Golding took to the escape road in avoidance.
Nick Percat was unable to avoid Brown and speared into the front of the Red Bull Camaro, whilst Tim Slade was also left with nowhere to go as Brown attempted to escape the scene and smoked up his rear tyres.
Percat and Slade both suffered suspension damage, with the former's Bendix Camaro towed back to pit lane on the back of a flatbed, whilst Brown also limped back to the pit lane with damage.
Although the chequered flag had flown, the red flags were waved with the track all but blocked, which spelled disaster for Brown.
His fastest lap time was invalidated after the session, with his provisional result of seventh turning into eleventh, missing the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout by one hundredth of a second.
A dejected Brown explained his perspective of the accident on the Fox Sports broadcast, saying that the #87 Camaro has been a handful all weekend.
"I've been locking rears in there the last two sessions and just thought I'd get it turned but didn't," said Brown.
"I just locked the rears. slapped the fence, and unfortunately I took a couple of other cars out of their qualy which I'm sorry to them, but these things happen, it's the Gold Coast, but we'll press on and see where we end up."
Having just jumped out of his bruised Camaro, Brown was unsure whether or not he would be allowed to keep his fastest lap, though he was consigned to missing the Shootout.
"I don't know to be honest, I'm not sure what time we did before that, we're definitely not in the 10 if that's the case if the red flag means that we will lose our time then that's what will happen," he added.
Brown will line up 11th on the grid for Race 21 of the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship this afternoon at 3:15pm local time/4:15pm AEDT.
The Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout for Race 21 begins at 12:40pm local time/1:40pm AEDT.
