Why Randle can't be discounted from championship fight

Seemingly obscured by all the talk surrounding the likes of Chaz Mostert, Broc Feeney and Will Brown, Thomas Randle remains a factor in the 2025 Repco Supercars Finals Series.

The Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 was a weekend to remember for Mostert, who led home Feeney in both races.

Penrite Racing rookie Kai Allen was an impressive third for the round, jumping from 10th to sixth in on the Saturday alone, while Matt Payne and Cam Waters did enough to sail through.

However, there’s a Ford driver who could yet find form when it matters most.

The state of play

Feeney, Mostert, Payne and Waters hold the four provisional Grand Final spots, with Brown, Allen and Randle in the drop zone.

A win for a Finals Drivers get them into Adelaide, regardless of their result in the other race.

Why he can make it to Adelaide

When it comes to getting out of jail, Randle has proven a master of late.

Down on form heading into the enduros, many expected Randle to drop out. What did he do? He made it through.

Randle was in the drop zone heading into the Gold Coast, and remained in the drop zone heading into Sunday. What did he do? In response to the pressure, he qualified second for Sunday’s race, and kept his head as race pace fell away to finish seventh, despite being send into the barriers by Allen.

With bombs going off around him, time and again, Randle survived.

It’s still a mountain to climb…

Randle sits seventh of seven heading to Sandown, and is 30 points behind fourth — which, currently, is held by teammate Waters.

Climbing over his teammate is arguably the biggest mountain for Randle to climb, given Waters leads the qualifying head-to-head 22-7, and race head-to-head 22-6.

It gets tougher from there — it’s 48 points to Payne, 72 to Mostert, and 102 to Feeney.

So it's not impossible, but is it probable?

Obviously, it’s not impossible. Few could have predicted Brodie Kostecki would crash his way out of The Finals, while the pressure heaped on Anton De Pasquale, culminating in a clash with James Courtney and resultant penalty.

Then, there was the plight of Ryan Wood, who was rubbed out of the race lead with a fuel leak on Saturday, leaving him chasing his tail on Sunday.

As Penrite Racing strategised Allen to a crucial podium on Saturday, Randle scrapped his way to two crucial results that were enough to hold off Kostecki and Wood. De Pasquale was in, but the penalty dropped him out, promoting Randle.

In one round alone, The Finals have proven anything can happen.

Should the others be worried?

Drivers wouldn’t want to admit it, but they will be looking at their rivals as The Finals wears on.

Randle and Allen are the only winless drivers in the final seven, but the Penrite Racing rookie has five podiums to the Castrol Mustang driver’s two.

Nearly every metric is stacked against Randle, who last stood on the podium in Tasmania in May.

However, if he makes Adelaide, he could suddenly be one to beat. He has a 5.25 race average in the Gen3 era in Adelaide, including two podiums.

But what does Randle think?

When asked how he can make it to Adelaide on The Formation Lap, which will premiere on Fox Sports 506 on Friday at 12:30pm, Randle was blunt: “Win a race. Win and you’re in.”

As he did for the Gold Coast, Randle has nothing to lose for Sandown. He knows he’s not there yet, but as the top four look to hang on, Randle could be free to throw the biggest punches of all.

“I’m yet to win a race in Supercars, so there’s no better time to win than right now,” the 2020 Super2 champion continued.

“The walls aren’t as close at Sandown, albeit there’s not much run-off there. You’ve got to be really aggressive.

“Similar to Gold Coast, we’ve got nothing to lose. We’re in the seven, but we’re not in the four yet.

“The points are so close, there are 30 points to the top four. Sounds easy, win a race and you’re in. But we know how competitive this year has been.”

What about Tickford?

Waters is the team spearhead, but Randle making the Semi Final is an early win for Tickford.Team owner Rod Nash was pleased to get both cars in, but insisted the team can’t afford to get carried away with the pressure on.

“We have a spring in our step after this weekend. Getting two drivers into the Semi Fnals, with Cam Waters and Thomas Randle both showing good speed, is a good sign as we head to our home track at Sandown,” Nash said.

"This weekend we were just strong. You couldn’t ask for any more. And you’ve got to be careful in wanting to be better with the pressure in The Finals. We just need to continue with our momentum."

The views in this article do not necessarily express the opinions of Supercars, teams or drivers.