Will Brown's title hopes come to an end at Sandown
Saturday spin, Sunday qualifying stumble prove costly
Brown set to play rear gunner for Broc Feeney in Adelaide
Will Brown was doing his level best to hide his disappointment at being knocked out of the Repco Supercars Finals Series at Sandown, but admitted it just wasn't the #888 Red Bull Ampol Ford's year.
It was a frustrating weekend for Brown, who spun out of leading contention as he fought ferociously to stay ahead of eventual winner Brodie Kostecki.
That put the 2024 champion 88 points behind the cut line entering Sunday. Realistically needing a win, his papers were all but stamped when qualified 19th.
But, in traditional Will Brown fashion, he carved his way through the field as he has so many times over the last two seasons, but a seventh place finish wasn't enough, and he bowed out of Finals, 114 points short of safety.
Brown could see the lighter sider of things post-race, but admitted that his season could never quite recover from the 'restrictor gate' saga of the opening half of the season.
"It feels like the season is done, I'm like, 'Oh well I'm out of the championship, may as well go and have some fun,' but it turns out I do have to race at Adelaide," Brown said on broadcast.
"I'll be there supporting Broc, I'll do what I can to help the team out there.
"Obviously it's great to have him in the Finals, disappointing that I'm not in there but you know what, it's been a tough year for us.
"I'm disappointed, but at the end of the day we had a very tough start to the season, and we're fifth in the points, we've clawed our way back up through. It's probably where we deserve to be right now.
"Disappointing, but we'll bounce back and put this year behind us and go hard next year."
Attention will now turn to securing teammate Broc Feeney a maiden Supercars title, after the 24-year-old secured his second consecutive Grand Final berth with a fourth place finish.
The 2024 Sandown 500 winner acknowledged that there is a line that can't be crossed in helping out Feeney in Adelaide, but couldn't let the used car salesman in him slide when asked what price Feeney had to pay for favours.
"It depends who it is. I don't like some of them, so I'll do it for free," Brown quipped.
"It's one of those things. At the end of the day, we don't wanna do anything silly and take competitors out or anything like that.
"There's no doubt about it, I'm sure some people will be doing stuff to get the second car in front of people and stuff like that, and I think you saw how hard I raced yesterday with me and Brodie, and throughout the season, and I'll make sure I race hard at Adelaide.
"There's no point in hiding that, I think everyone out there is going to do that to try and help their team, so we'll put our best foot forward, try and get Broc the championship.
"It's one team, we'll try and see what we can do."
Brown reverts to fifth in the championship with his Finals bonuses removed, while Feeney enters the Grand Final third, 54 points behind leader Matt Payne.
