Brown on 12th: We've got to do a better job

Qualifying woes have been the story of the season for Will Brown, and it bit him once again in Boost Mobile Qualifying at the Repco Bathurst 1000.

The #1 Camaro of the reigning Supercars champion was well in the fight to transfer into tomorrow's Top Ten Shootout throughout the 40-minute session, however when it mattered most, Brown couldn't convert.

Whilst the likes of Nick Percat, Cameron Hill, and Thomas Randle all put in last ditch flyers that saw them make the Shootout, Brown was left in 12th, just 0.0705s away from a Shootout berth.

It marked the 11th time in 27 qualifying sessions held this season that the 2024 Sandown 500 winner missed the top 10, a stark contrast to his ultra-consistent title charge of last year.

Further placing a spotlight on Brown's struggles is the phenomenal qualifying form of teammate Broc Feeney, who is well in the running to claim his sixth straight pole, and 15th for the season in tomorrow's Shootout.

In fact, Brown's time of a 2:04.3187 was closer to the time of Triple Eight wildcard stablemate Zach Bates in 16th (2:04.4843), than it was Feeney in second (2:04.0371).

Still, Brown could find the positives out of a tough day: "So, not the not the best day. We were looking not too bad up until probably the end of Practice 4."

"We knew we had a little bit of work to do but I think we did that going into qualifying, going into the start of that session.

"Unfortunately we just didn't have the pace. It's tight out there, two tenths to pole." "Everyone's doing such a good job and unfortunately we were just really on the wrong side of the top ten. I feel like we've got to do a little bit better job, but it didn't feel so bad, it just wasn't fast enough."

Charges through the field aren't unprecedented for Brown, who charged from 16th to fourth alongside co-driver Scott Pye at the AirTouch 500 at The Bend last month.

Should they perform a similar charge on Sunday, there's every chance that they could walk away with te Peter Brock Trophy, something the 27-year-old is all too aware of. "So we'll start the Great Race from P12, sort out our Sunday as best we can. It's all about Sunday. Still not a good spot to start, but it's all about Sunday.

"You can win it from P12, there's no doubt about that, but we've definitely made our life harder for Sunday. We'll work through it and try to win the race."