Brown looking to arrest downward trend after fast start

Will Brown is quietly confident heading into Taupō Saturday as the 2024 Supercars champion aims to get his season back on track.

The #888 Red Bull Ampol Ford was among the fastest on Friday, Brown backing up fourth in Practice 1 with second in Practice 2, just 0.003s down on fast man Ryan Wood.

It was Brown’s best start to a weekend yet, but the next step is arresting the trend of falling away come qualifying.

Brown was seventh in sole Sydney practice, only to be eighth in the qualifying session immediately afterwards. Come Melbourne, and after being fourth and eighth in practice, he was only 12th in the next qualifying session.

Interestingly, Brown has beaten teammate Broc Feeney in all five practice sessions to date. Feeney, however, leads the qualifying head-to-head 6-1. Brown did claim a drought-breaking pole for the Melbourne finale, and duly converted to a podium.

Qualifying towards the front is crucial in Taupō, although only one of the five races held so far at the circuit have been won by the car starting on pole position

“I’m feeling good with Friday, actually,” said Brown, who finds himself 13th in points heading into the ITM Taupō Super 440.

“We were P4 and then second then, Woody pulled something out of the bag and looked really fast there.

"I think looking at Brodie [Kostecki], he looked pretty good on the re-used tyre. Overall, feeling pretty confident, balance is the big thing. And I felt like we had a good car that rolled out of the trailer.”

It’s a different story for championship leader Kostecki, who arrives in New Zealand with a 28-point lead over Tickford Racing rival Cam Waters.

Kostecki has won three of the last four races, has five podiums in his last six starts, and also claimed two of three poles in Taupō 12 months ago.

“Definitely rolling off a bit of momentum from the last round,” Kostecki said.

“But so far, the Shell V-Power Ford Mustang’s been really strong out the gate and it's feeling really strong on race trim, but a little good to work on.

"Woody was really quick on his qualifying run. So, got a little bit to do to beat him off the top step.”

Track action commences with Boost Mobile Qualifying at 9:40am NZST/7:40am AEST.