Will Brown gained 29 positions across three Townsville races
Brown made a whopping 120 overtakes last year, with qualifying average of 9.1
2024 Supercars champion is ranked sixth in the current field for passes
Passing cars may have been fun for Will Brown in Townsville, but he knows it was a byproduct of poor qualifying results.
The Red Bull Ampol Racing star continues to move forward in this year’s championship, drawing ever closer to the top five in the standings.
Finishing fifth for the round in Townsville doesn’t tell the story of Brown's weekend in the slightest, given he qualified 19th, 12th and 19th, the latter result leaving him short on words.
Per Supercars data analyst Scott Sinclair, Brown’s 29 positions gained across the three races was the third highest at an event in the Gen3 era.
"I passed something like 29 cars this weekend,” Brown said post-round.
"That was a lot of fun, but need to qualify better and put the car up front. Would rather be in the running for a podium and a win instead of having fun passing cars.”
Through the noise of Triple Eight’s ongoing struggles, Brown’s race performance was a standout at Reid Park.
Brown’s charge to the 2024 championship was built on regally beating teammate Broc Feeney, whose qualifying performance was far superior.
There will be nowhere to hide in Perth, though, where 71% of races have been won from the front row of the grid. Furthermore, 90% of races have been won from the first two rows of the grid.
For what it's worth, Brown won the second 2023 race in Perth from pole, racing for Erebus Motorsport.
"To be better in qualifying it's for me about minimising mistakes, don't make them, be fast and be consistent every time you go out there,” said Brown, who is winless since Ipswich last August.
"I felt like I did a good job for what I had this weekend, but you know if we get everything 100% perfect hopefully who knows we can start just that little bit further up.
"Looking forward to going to Perth and just having another weekend on track to try and redeem ourselves, try and be faster in this car, try and get up there.”
Brown is 100 points behind fifth placed Kai Allen heading to Perth on July 31-August 2.
