Feeney out to conquer mysterious weakest link
Broc Feeney leads championship by 90 points heading to Darwin
Triple Eight star has won six of the last seven races at Hidden Valley
Track action in Darwin commences on Friday June 19
Championships aren’t won on Fridays, but Broc Feeney sure isn’t content with repeated slow starts to his Supercars weekends.
Feeney skipped away to a 90-point lead over his nearest rival after a crushing performance in Tasmania, and heads to Darwin looking to extend his golden run up north.
The Red Bull Ampol Racing star has won six of the last seven races at Hidden Valley Raceway, which hosts the next round of the season on June 19-21.
The simple stat is, Feeney leads by 90 points. But it’s not as simple as that, nor is Feeney simply getting out of bed and blazing into the fastest car on the grid.
Oddly, Feeney continues to start weekends on the back foot — in eight practice sessions, he has an average of 10.2, and has been placed 10th or worse five times.
Where Feeney improves as the weekend wears on, delivering a 4.6 race average (the best in the field) and a 4.7 qualifying average (second best), teammate Will Brown has gone backwards.
Brown ended up ahead of Feeney six times in eight practice sessions, yet trails the qualifying head-to-head 9.4, and race head-to-head 10-2.
“We just need to try and roll out of the truck a little bit faster, I think. We're progressing a lot over a weekend. I think our Sundays have been really good,” Feeney said.
"We're just probably lacking a little bit on Friday and that first sort of qualifying race in the weekend. So, we'll focus on that for the next one.”
While practice means little in the grand scheme of the season, Feeney’s comments come at a time the Repco Sprint Cup is at a crossroads, with Matt Payne 90 points down, and Brodie Kostecki nearly 200 points behind.
Should Feeney continue his Darwin form, the #88 Ford driver could continue his march towards a second early Finals berth.
"I really wanted to make sure that we were heading into a good window before we go to Darwin,” Feeney added.
"That's obviously been a very happy hunting ground for me, and probably one of my favorite events of the year. Obviously the last couple of years or last three years have been really good for me there.
“Stoked to be heading up north, and hopefully we can roll out a bit faster and try and go for the Triple Crown.”
Track action in Darwin commences on Friday June 19.
