How Brown slump, Heimgartner car failure shifted Finals race
Will Brown qualified 12th for Adelaide opener, Broc Feeney claimed pole
Feeney to start alongside closest title rival Chaz Mostert, Kai Allen seventh
Andre Heimgartner failure denied Brodie Kostecki, Cam Waters shot at pole
Finals drama has gripped the bp Adelaide Grand Final at the first chance of asking, with Will Brown's quest to claim back-to-back Repco Supercars Championships getting off to a shaky start
The reigning champion suffered yet another qualifying wobble in Boost Mobile Qualifying, and was the only championship contender who didn't progress through to Q2 on Friday.
Brown is set to start 12th for this afternoon's opening race, but an untimely failure for Andre Heimgartner's Chevrolet Camaro inadvertently put Brown under even more pressure.
Chief rivals Broc Feeney and Chaz Mostert will start first and second, but were set to be dropped to third and fourth as Brodie Kostecki and Cam Waters went faster again. However, Heimgartner's Brad Jones Racing Camaro expired on the run to the final corner, and deposited oil on the circuit.
With Kostecki and Waters firing off, Feeney and Mostert held onto their front row start, putting more distance between themselves, Kai Allen and Brown.
If they finish Friday's race where they start, Feeney will lead Mostert by an extended 24 points, with Brown and Allen 65 and 70 points behind. Had Kostecki and Waters qualified ahead as was projected, Feeney would lead Mostert by 23 points, Brown by 57, and Allen by 62.
Brown had managed to bump his way into the top 10 cut-off in the dying minutes of the session, however late flyers from Heimgartner and Cooper Murray bumped the reigning champion out after the buzzer.
Progress will be difficult to make in this afternoon's race, given it's shorter 100km distance. However, there are also less points on offer today than there are in the 250km races tomorrow and on Sunday, meaning damage will be limited if he can't progress forward.
That's not to say he can't, having saved his season last time out at Sandown with a stunning charge across the weekend's two races, gaining 27 places across the Penrite Oil Sandown 500.
Speaking post-session, Brown was once again at a loss to explain the disparity to teammate Feeney, who out-qualified Brown for the 30th time this season by virtue of a record-breaking 17th pole of the season.
"It'll be tough obviously this afternoon. This arvo's race is a pretty short race, so that'll make it a little more difficult," Brown said.
"Once again, it's three hundredths of a second and we would've been in the 10, so just on the wrong side of it. I didn't feel like it was too bad of a lap actually, I just wasn't fast enough."
Heimgartner was the one who dumped Brown out of qualifying, and speaking post-session, felt a vibration coming out of Turn 11, before it "let go" into the final corner.
"It was a decent lap there, and then coming out of Turn 11 I just heard a vibration," the Kiwi said.
"It was a massive vibration, and I thought Brad wanted me to lift off, but I just held it flat and hoped I'd make it coming into the last corner, but it let go.
"Really sucks, we had a fast car, we did a good job tuning it, and it would've been a good result there, which this year has been hard to come by.
"I'm really happy with how Tony and the whole crew has tuned the car, how we've prepared, and the car speed we had. It just wasn't meant to be today."
Update after rain delay: The 32-lap Race 32 will commence at 4:25pm local time/4:55pm AEDT. Fox Sports, Kayo Sports and Sky NZ take live coverage. International fans can watch on SuperView.
