This is an exclusive post-event Supercars.com column by championship-winning Race Engineer Scott Sinclair. Sinclair will preview and debrief each round of the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship from his own perspective.
Will Brown's revival
Even non-Will Brown fans would've enjoyed seeing what his best points-scoring weekend in nearly two years meant to him. You don't need stats to justify it — his smile said it all.
Some musicians are very good at reading music, very technically sound. Others are brilliant at improvisation, their talent shining when adjusting on the run. Race car drivers are no different.
There are the 'clinicians' who trawl through the data and are very precise — typically the better qualifiers. Then there are the 'improvisers', whose talent is on display when adapting to whatever's thrown at them. They generally move forward in the races and always get the most out of the car. Improvisers are my favourite type of driver, and for me, Will Brown sits in that category. When the improvisers are going well, the racing is genuinely better, which is why Brown being back is such good news.
It seems odd, then, that Brown heads to the enduros with a new race engineer in David Cauchi. So why now? Triple Eight have always performed best when they have a central engineering figure between the two race engineers. It's clear the engine development has sapped resources, the flow-on effect being less focus on chassis performance. The timing may not be ideal, but it appears a smart move.
Will the change negatively impact Brown's performance? I wouldn't have thought so, given Cauchi's vast experience and the fact Brown's previous engineer, Andrew Edwards, will still be present. It could actually elevate him further, with Cauchi's fresh eyes and previous Mustang experience adding a new perspective.
The Reliability Gods are handing out the trophies
Strangely, the last three trophies awarded by Supercars have ended up in the hands of the driver who was the outsider going into the deciding race. In all three cases, it was reliability that ripped the trophy from the favoured driver's hands and gave it to the less fancied chance.
Broc Feeney's sensor issue in Adelaide handed the Championship trophy to Chaz Mostert, Ryan Wood's engine issue in Ruapuna handed the Jason Richards Trophy to Broc Feeney, and now Matt Payne's engine issue in Queensland has handed the Sprint Cup trophy to Feeney as well.
The reliability of race cars around the world has improved significantly over the last 25 years. In Supercars specifically, the average DNF rate has steadily decreased from around 16% per race in 2001 to just over 3% this year. That, of course, means nothing if you're one of the casualties.
Despite the disappointment, Payne and his Penrite team were impressively composed post-race, a further sign of the team's maturity. Payne’s dislodged tyre held on in Perth to secure him a win; this time, the Reliability Gods reminded him they've got no favourites.
DJR's pit stop rebound
The asterisk around Brodie Kostecki's ability to win the championship this year has been his team's performance in pit lane. Combining all the pit stops across the year, Kostecki ranks 16th of the 24 drivers, losing on average 2.1 seconds to the fastest crew at each stop.
On the weekend, however, they executed brilliantly. On Saturday, in both races Matt Payne attempted an undercut to take the lead from Kostecki, but Kostecki’s crew got the job done and returned him to the track ahead. The Sunday fuel races have been DJR's Achilles heel all season, and after significant issues in Perth, they executed perfectly — recording the second-quickest stop overall, two seconds quicker than Feeney's.
The business end of the year is coming, exaggerating the importance of pit lane performance. Like Chaz Mostert's pit crew last year, who came good around this time, the DJR crew showed their potential on the weekend. If they can keep that up, Kostecki's championship credentials look a lot stronger.
Broc Feeney's conversion rates
Broc Feeney celebrated his 150th race start in style on Sunday, taking his 32nd career win. It's been a rollercoaster season, so he'll be satisfied to finish as the Repco Sprint Cup winner for the second time.
Reflecting on his first 150 races, his conversion rates are extraordinary. He's scored pole position in 21% of his 150 races; for comparison, Scott McLaughlin did it 15% of the time. On the race win front, his boss Jamie Whincup converted 11% of his first 150 starts into wins — Feeney's done it at nearly twice that rate, 21%.
Impressive numbers, but with only one of those 32 wins coming in an endurance event, he'll be eager to convert his next two starts into enduro wins.
From sprint to endurance
The final Sprint weekend again gave us a different winner in each race, the fifth time it's happened this year (last year it didn't happen once). But in just two weeks the endurance races begin — doubling the number of drivers and tripling the complexity!
Scott Sinclair is one of the most respected voices in pit lane, famously engineering James Courtney to the 2010 championship with Dick Johnson Racing. Sinclair also spent stints at the Holden Racing Team and Kelly Racing, spent time on the Supercars Commission, and recently joined Supercars as a data analyst.
The views in this article do not necessarily express the opinions of Supercars, teams or drivers.
