Triple Eight duo optimistic of turnaround after solid Friday
Will Brown, Broc Feeney feel they are “in the mix” in Sydney
Brown fourth, Feeney 10th in Sydney night practice
Triple Eight battled for grip in Townsville two weeks ago
Will Brown and Broc Feeney both feel they are “in the mix” after practice in Sydney, a far cry from Triple Eight’s wobbles in Townsville a fortnight ago.
Brown and Feeney, separated by 78 points in the championship, were fourth and 10th in Friday’s 90-minute practice session at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Matt Stone Racing led the way for the Chevrolet brigade, with Nick Percat and Cameron Hill second and fifth respectively. However, there remains questions over the true pecking order for qualifying, which will be held in vastly different conditions on Saturday afternoon.
Both teams struggled for grip in Townsville, Brown qualifying 13th and 17th for the two races, leading to a crash in the finale.
Come Sydney, and Brown held top spot for the balance of the session before Ryan Wood and Chaz Mostert delivered a Walkinshaw Andretti United one-three result.
Brown set his fastest lap on his final lap of the session, but was pleased to have better balance than he did at Reid Park two weeks ago, when he ended Friday in 12th.
"I feel like we're in the mix. Obviously, being in the top five is great after Practice 1 and although I don't feel like we maximised it at the end there, I felt like we made a lot of changes throughout the session,” Brown said.
"It was good to run through a big test plan. An hour and a half is actually a long time on the track, but it goes by very quickly. So, great to make as many changes as we can, but hopefully we have a good day in qualifying tomorrow.
"We've got a few things we need to look at overnight and see what we can take into qualifying tomorrow. With a lot of the tracks this year, it's about how well you can qualify.
"But also around here there's a lot of tyre degradation, and we saw that throughout people's race runs. You've got to do a really good job with your race car to make sure that you can hold on for as long as you can on those tyres."
Feeney didn’t have it all his own way, with the #88 struggling between tyre sets as he ended up 10th, 0.423s off Wood’s benchmark pace.
"The first half of the session I thought was really good. I felt like we got through our test program pretty well,” Feeney said.
"We made a lot of changes and felt pretty competitive. But we put another set of tyres on and really struggled, however when we went to the race allocation, it was a bit better. So, a bit of a mix in that mid-to-end part.
"I think we're somewhat in the mix. We need to have a look at the first half of the session and then our green run at the end. It's just analysing everything tonight.
"We made a lot of changes today so it's just about figuring out what we thought was best and going forward tomorrow. But we’ve got a competitive car, we just need to do some fine-tuning from here."
Supercars will return to the track on Saturday for Boost Mobile Qualifying at 2:50pm AEST, which will set the running order for the Top Ten Shootout at 4:55pm. The first 200km night race of the weekend, the 51-lap Race 15, will commence at 7:35pm.
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