Brown unpacks unusual Allen battle in Bend practice
Will Brown involved in several incidents to end Friday at The Bend
Brown battled with Kai Allen on the out lap in Practice 3
#1 Camaro ended the day on top, 0.3210s ahead of teammate Broc Feeney
It was a wild end to Friday at The Bend for reigning Supercars champion Will Brown.
Brown was involved in three separate incidents throughout the session, which started right from the off on the out lap.
As Brown and Red Bull Ampol Racing teammate Broc Feeney toured around minutes after the pit exit opened, Penrite Racing rookie Kai Allen roared up on a flying out lap.
Allen fired down the inside from well back at Turn 17, only for Brown to pull a big switchback and fire away off the corner exit, with Allen nearly returning serve off the final corner.
Speaking to media at the conclusion of the day, Brown couldn't come up with a reason to justify engaging in an on-track battle on Friday, but humorously admitted that it stemmed from a case of mistaken identity.
"Yeah I'm not sure why to be honest, I just thought it would be a little bit of fun, the switching back on the out lap and having a bit of a race out there," said Brown.
"I actually thought it was Matt [Payne] to be honest, so sorry Kai, but it was good. There was no reason for it to be honest."
That was just the beginning of a chaotic session for the #1 Camaro, which was involved in an awkward incident with traffic in pit lane, before copping a warning from officials after crossing the blend line at pit exit.
Despite all of that, Brown laid down a stunning 1:48.9957 to go a third of a second clear of teammate Feeney, stunning commentators and the reigning Sandown 500 winner alike as the only sub 1m 49s lap of the day.
"There was a lot of surprise in the car as well, don't worry.
"I didn't think I was going to do that, I was struggling a little before we put greens on, we weren't getting the best laps together, and I think I'd only done a 50.9.
"When I saw what Anton had done at the time I thought, 'We're really gonna have to pull a lap out here,' but it just really gripped up, came together, and it was a good, tidy lap."
Action at the AirTouch 500 at The Bend resumes tomorrow morning at 9:50am local time/10:20am AEST with a 40-minute practice session for co-drivers only.
