Triple Eight dissatisfied after Saturday Gold Coast slump
Broc Feeney and Will Brown fell back as the heavens opened
Feeney rebounded to dominate Sunday finale
Triple Eight Team Manager Mark Dutton admits missing out on Gold Coast Saturday from pole "hurts," despite rebounding strongly with Broc Feeney on Sunday.
Feeney surged to victory from pole position in Sunday's Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 finale, racing away from Ford rival Brodie Kostecki with a dominant final stint.
After starting ninth after a grid penalty, Will Brown dropped as low as 15th on Saturday before recovering to sixth, finishing ahead of Feeney in the process.
Critically, Feeney started from pole, but couldn't hold a candle to his rivals — something Dutton didn't hide behind.
”It was a tough weekend and we had to work super hard. We had two pole positions, which was amazing, but we didn’t convert on Saturday and that just hurts," Dutton said.
“We had moments of brilliance with both cars, but not all the time and not as consistently through the weekend as we would have liked.
“We’re super proud of everyone’s efforts but there is work to be done. But understanding is the name of the game and that’s what we will try to do in the short time before Sandown.”
Triple Eight still slashed its deficit to Penrite Racing in the teams' championship, and is the only team with two drivers remaining in the 2026 Finals.
Regardless, Saturday's race also left a bitter taste in the mouth of Feeney, who could have regained the points lead had he not plummeted down the order, and finished behind rival Matt Payne.
"Apart from Saturday's race, been a great weekend I think. We rolled the cars out pretty fast, right up in the mix on Friday and in qualifying and then put it on pole position in what was a tricky shootout on Saturday ," Feeney said.
"Unfortunately, that race on Saturday in the wet, we just really struggled and never really fired a shot. We dropped back a lot of positions from the front where we started.
"Then to come back in the wet on Sunday, top every session, first in qualifying and first in the Shootout was a fantastic result — especially in the conditions. Just reassured us that, you know, we can do it in the wet as well.
"The race we led start to finish — there were some fast guys behind us, but we did a really good job at managing the race."
We needed to get a win. It's been a few rounds and the Enduros were really tough for us, so we needed to get that ball rolling again."
