How 'calculated' Feeney impressed Supercars champion
Broc Feeney launched surprise attack on Chaz Mostert in Gold Coast finale
Feeney's bold move impressed 2015 Supercars champion Mark Winterbottom
"Calculated" Feeney "thinking big game picture," says Winterbottom
Former Supercars champion Mark Winterbottom believes Broc Feeney has “shown his cards” early ahead of a potential crack at a maiden championship.
Feeney has led the standings since taking the lead in Tasmania in May, and brought home two runner-up finishes in the first round of The Finals on the Gold Coast.
The Triple Eight Race Engineering star raised eyebrows, however, with a stunning attack on Chaz Mostert on the penultimate lap of the Surfers finale.
Feeney clashed with Mostert at the Turn 4 hairpin, before diving down the inside at Turn 11. It forced Mostert to move across, and Feeney was escorted towards the wall.
Mostert led Feeney home to claim a second win in as many days. Both drivers laughed off the battle post-race, before Feeney insisted he was "trying to go for a win.”
With points and Finals rankings on the line, Mostert and Feeney could have cruised home. However, Feeney showed the rest of the field he wasn’t going to settle for second, something that impressed Winterbottom.
“The Feeney [move] was cool. I thought that was really cool,” 2013 Bathurst winner Winterbottom said on Supercars’ The Run Home podcast.
“He’s young, but he’s very clever. I give Broc a lot of credit.
“He could've pushed him out of the way, and probably had every right to, to be honest, the way Chaz was moving across.
“He’s thinking big game picture. He showed his nose, ‘yep, I’m going to be aggressive, but I’m going to be calculated’.
“Come Adelaide, he’s not going to do that. If he’s going there to win a championship, he’s not pulling out. He’s shown his cards quite early, where his head’s at.”
While he didn't get the win, Feeney suggested he wanted to make a statement, and maintained the goal was to take the points lead to the Sandown Semi Final.
"I think the goal is always to just try and be the leader when you go into the next round," Feeney said.
"So for us today, we knew what we had to do to maintain the lead, going into Sandown, and that was the goal. We've been able to do that.”
Feeney and Mostert are first and second in points heading to the Semi Final at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 on November 14-16. Tickets for the Semi Final are on sale now.
