This is an exclusive pre-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.
Sprint Cup importance
The Repco Sprint Cup is decided this weekend, and it's easy to downplay its worth in the context of the overall season. It shouldn't be. It's the equivalent of winning the minor premiership — the culmination of 28 races, won by the driver who's been the best and most consistent all year.
Yes, it guarantees a Finals spot, and yes, as we saw last year, it doesn't guarantee the championship. But 24 drivers started the season on zero points, and the winner will have done a better job than 23 others. That deserves recognition.
Realistically, it's between Matt Payne and Broc Feeney and with only 118 points between them, it's likely going down to Sunday's final race.
Payne's been the best to this point — the best qualifier and the fastest in the races. His only stumbles have been the loose wheel in Ruapuna, then a puncture and being wrecked by James Golding at the Grand Prix. Given Feeney's well-documented struggles this year, it's a credit to him that he's still in with a chance.
If you're a non-believer in the Finals format, treat the Sprint Cup as your championship and celebrate the winner accordingly. For the rest of us Finals fans, it's still worth a moment to acknowledge the driver who's performed best across the Sprint events.
The Repco Sprint Cup trophy rewards a season of sustained excellence; the championship trophy rewards whoever delivers when the pressure peaks. This weekend we crown the first, then the chase for the second begins.
Will Brown's reset
Had someone been filming at Triple Eight headquarters at 7:00pm last Tuesday, the moment Will Brown's undersized restrictor was detected would've made fascinating viewing. Every Race Engineer has lived a version of it — discovering a component in the car that isn't what you expected — albeit nowhere near this scale.
The emotions are always mixed: glad something wrong has been found, furious (a better word than frustrated) that it happened in the first place. In the end, relief has to prevail, or you can't move on. It's a big story though, and it'll be a fascinating watch to see if there's an immediate up-tick in Brown's form.
I don't like dealing in hypotheticals, but the modern world loves them, so I'll indulge those wondering what the impact may have been. Looking only at qualifying, had everything been as it should, Brown would've appeared in eight Shootouts this year instead of four, and in the last four consecutive sessions where he was knocked out in Part 1, he'd have progressed to Part 2. Chuck in a couple more pole positions too — one at Taupō, maybe another in Sydney to go with his Grand Prix pole.
Red Bull Ampol fans would've cursed the introduction of the Finals format after how last year played out for Broc Feeney. Yet that same format is the only reason Brown, now with his correct restrictor, still has a genuine shot at winning the championship.
Cam Waters’ championship profile
This is Cam Waters' 11th full-time season in the championship, and he's never had one like it.
For the first time in his career, he's making meaningful ground on race day, averaging a two-position gain on where he qualifies. Last year was +0.3; before that, ten seasons of going backwards.
Having a qualifying average under eight and averaging a two-position gain in the races is rare. It's only been done once in the last 10 years — by Will Brown in his championship-winning 2024 season.
Positions Gained is a simple calculation — where you started versus where you finished — but to move forward, especially when starting towards the front, you need car speed, reliability and strategy, or you need those ahead of you to fall off. And that doesn't happen anywhere near as much at the front as it does at the back. Positions Gained is therefore an all-encompassing measure of performance.
So what's the big deal about Waters? Three of the last four championships have been won by drivers showing exactly the trend Waters is showing right now, Chaz Mostert included. Prior to that, no championship back to 2009 had been won by a driver who moved forward as much in the races. Waters hasn't had the outright speed of Payne and Kostecki this year, but unlike them, his profile is squarely aligned with that of the recent champions. Something to keep an eye on...
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.
