How Wood failure helped Triple Eight catch out Ford rivals

Triple Eight reeled off a 1-2 despite Fords leading the first stint of Saturday’s second race in Perth, with Broc Feeney and Will Brown admitting to good fortune over day's defining moment.

Feeney and Brown brought home a somewhat unexpected 1-2 in Race 15 on a day a suspension failure ruined Ryan Wood’s bid of back-to-back wins.

The #88 and #1 Red Bull Ampol Chevrolets were fourth and fifth as Wood, Cam Waters and Matt Payne held the top three spots.

Waters and Payne jumped pole sitter Wood, with Wood jumping Payne for second on lap 12. On lap 19, Wood cleared Waters, and looked odd-on for a second win in as many starts.

The battles brought Feeney and Brown into play, bunching the top five together as Payne closed on Waters, before an untimely off for Wood on lap 22 changed the face of the race.

Triple Eight brought Brown and Feeney in for four-tyre stops on laps 23 and 24 respectively, with the hard-charging Chaz Mostert taking three tyres on lap 25. Payne stopped on lap 26, and Waters on lap 27, but the damage had already been done. As it shook out, Feeney led Brown and Mostert, with Waters and Payne effective fourth and fifth.

Per Supercars data analyst Scott Sinclair, Feeney’s last lap before the stops (while stuck behind Waters and Payne) was a 56.22s. His first full lap after the pitstop was a 55.40s. The two full laps Feeney then did before Waters pitted were 0.4s and 0.2s faster than Waters.

Waters' stop was then 1.9s slower than Feeney's. With the slower pit stop and undercut, Waters ended up coming out 1.6s behind Feeney. Even if Waters’ stop had been the same as Feeney, the undercut amount (despite Feeney battling Brown on pit exit) was enough for Feeney to come out in front.

“Probably a little bit surprised to walk away with the win in that one,” Feeney said.

“Just got boxed in a little bit at the start, so run around in fourth. You probably didn't expect to play out like that.

“It was pretty unfortunate what happened to Woody there. We were able to capitalise on pretty tight racing and great pit stops from the crew.”

Brown put pressure on Feeney after the latter emerged on cold tyres, with Feeney hanging on for his third win in four starts.

While he missed out on victory once again — Brown has one win this season in 14 races — the reigning champion was at least pleased to march to second from eighth.

"I think that Ryan did a great job, but unfortunately had a mechanical failure, which allowed us all to race in a pack,” Brown said.

“Broc and I undercut the others and got out in front then ended up having a good little tussle together but I couldn't get past him. He did a fantastic job and didn't make any mistakes.

"So I wish I had a bit of a slow teammate to be honest, but I'm really joking, but he's been doing an amazing job, so yeah, happy just to come back and finish where we did.

"The end of that second race I think Chaz [Mostert] was definitely coming back at me in the end. He pitted well, he had great car speed, so I was just trying to save enough so that when he got to me I could keep it straight and keep in front."

Supercars action resumes in Perth on Sunday with Boost Mobile Qualifying at 11:00am local/1:00pm AEST, which sets the running order for the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout at 1:05pm local/3:05pm AEST. The weekend concludes with Race 16 at 3:15pm local/5:15pm AEST.