Broc Feeney/Nick Percats 23rd on torrid day at The Bend
Percat hit three times during dramatic first half of the race
Feeney lost championship lead to Ford rival Matt Payne
While keen to forget about another “tough” trip to The Bend, Broc Feeney believes a podium was possible on a day the championship lead changed hands once again.
The Feeney/Nick Percat Ford was taken out of contention after a clash with Zak Best, with the #88 Red Bull Ampol Mustang forced into the garage.
After a refueling issue ruined his 2025 Bend race, Feeney was again powerless on Sunday, this time as Percat was beaten from pillar to post.
Percat was turned around by Lee Holdsworth on lap 2. On lap 33, Percat's day went from bad to worse as he was hit by an out of control Best at Turn 3, snapping the right rear toe link on the #88 Ford.
The #88 couldn’t recover from there, and was classified in 23rd after Declan Fraser retired, and both Blanchard Racing Team Fords were disqualified.
Matt Payne was the biggest winner, leaving The Bend 120 points ahead of Feeney.
“Tough weekend, pretty much one to forget,” Feeney said.
“A couple of years in a row where it's been average for us in the first enduro of the season, obviously not through lack of effort, the team did a team did a good job to keep us going with the cards we were dealt."
There was nothing Feeney could do about how the race panned out, with Percat a punching bag after starting strongly from seventh. Such was the pace, that Feeney suggested a podium could have been there for the taking.
"It was just, really tough conditions out there. I mean, unfortunately, we got cleaned up three times in the opening stages of the race,” Feeney continued.
“Even once is going to ruin your race, so to get done three times puts us way back in the field. Those first two were bad but we were still in the game, then that third clash — that one bent a part of the car and we lost five or so laps fixing that in the garage. That's day done.
"Outside of that I think the pace was there, the pace was good, so good I think we definitely could've looked at a podium if everything had gone our way. But everyone's going to have those stories from a race like today — so hectic."
"On to Bathurst. Disappointing today at The Bend, but we've got the team and we've got the car, we'll pull it all together and go full attack at the Mountain in a few weeks’ time."
