'We'll be back': Why bullish Brown isn't panicking after 'tough slog'

Seventh, 14th, 18th, eighth, 21st, and 21st.

If you'd have told anyone that this is what Will Brown's form guide would look like after the opening six races of the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship, you'd have been laughed out of the room.

Yet, here we were.

The 2024 champion at times cut a defeated figure. He had been penalised on three separate occasions, cooked in Sydney, and perhaps most alarmingly, teammate Broc Feeney once again more than had his measure.

And then Sunday happened.

His breakthrough started on Saturday morning, courtesy of a drought-breaking pole — his first in 10 months — however the biggest test would come in the race the following day.

After Feeney's wild opening lap crash, Brown had eight laps to hold on for his first win since August. He was supreme for six of those laps, but Brodie Kostecki would not be denied.

Second is still a light at the end of the tunnel for what has been a shocking start. Year-on-year, no one has regressed more than Brown after the opening two rounds, falling from the lead last year to 13th in 2026.

However, you could tell that the upbeat Will Brown of old was back after claiming his first silverware of the season.

"It's motorsport, at the end of the day I go back to 2024 when I felt like I couldn't get anything wrong. I wouldn't get in crashes, we were lucky each weekend with certain tyres," Brown reflected on Sunday.

"The last six months I feel like I can't do anything right. So we've got to work on that, try not to put ourselves in bad positions, and that sort of stuff.

"When you qualify up the front it's easy. You look at that race today, no damage, racing with good competitors up the front. Got to work on that qualifying to get up there, and we've shown we can win a championship. We'll be back up there."

Whether or not Brown could've fended off his podcast co-host might very well have been elementary, given the clear pace advantage the #17 Ford had over the Red Bull Ampol Mustangs — indeed the rest of the field — all weekend.

Regardless of the size of the trophy he won, it came as a sorely needed boost for the #888 garage, with Brown reflecting: "I just needed a solid result to be honest.

"It's been a tough slog for the start of the year, and I just wanted to get the team a result. I really wanted to get that win.

"I got off the line okay, and was able to manage the lead, but I knew Brodie was fast, and I thought, 'here we go he's going to have a crack.'

"He just forced me into my own error. It was a rookie error, so I'm disappointed in myself to be honest, but he had a very fast car. I thought we were going to get into it, I thought this podcast could be over next week, let's have a crack here.

"But I just made a mistake by myself, and that's what happened. I've got to do a better job as a whole, and hopefully we can come back stronger in New Zealand."