How Brown buried doubts over replacing van Gisbergen
Will Brown in box seat to win title in first Triple Eight season
Queenslander replaced three-time champ Shane van Gisbergen
Brown has claimed 17 podiums in 22 starts this season
12 months ago, there were question marks over Will Brown, who had signed with Triple Eight to replace NASCAR-bound Shane van Gisbergen.
Was Brown good enough? Could he win races at Triple Eight? Could he win a championship?
Brown has more than answered every question and silenced every critic, putting himself in the box seat to match van Gisbergen’s feat of winning the title in his first season with Triple Eight.
Through the first 11 rounds, Brown has been the benchmark, claiming at least one podium at each event and opening up a 180-point lead over teammate Broc Feeney.
Only five drivers in history have claimed a podium at every single round. Even fewer have christened their first year with a new team with a championship.
Brown is the real deal, but on the eve of the biggest weekend of his racing career, the Queenslander admitted he harboured doubts ahead of his Triple Eight move.
Crucially, ahead of his move, Brown identified within himself that Triple Eight could do the job, so he made sure his own performance was up to scratch.
“Replacing Shane and coming to this team, I knew that if I didn’t win the championship, or I wasn't first or second this year, that it’s probably because I’ve underperformed at the end of the day,” Brown said on Thursday's broadcast.
“I know that the team’s capable of it, I know the cars are, it was all about how I performed this year, and how I stepped up to the plate. I'm excited to be in the position I’m in, because it means that I have.
“There was a little bit of doubt around the end of the year, I signed the contract and then everything went to shit, really, which I knew would probably happen.
“By the end of the year, four, five rounds after that, people were second-guessing the decision a little bit. But it’s been great to go out there, straight away win a race at Bathurst, and then keep that consistency going all year.”
In what proved his final year with Erebus Motorsport, Brown led the championship midway through the 2023 season, but coincidentally, his season fell apart after his Triple Eight deal was announced.
In a brutal twist of fate, Brown collided with van Gisbergen in Adelaide last year, ensuring Brodie Kostecki clinched the title.
Come this weekend, and Brown has been peerless in 2024, enjoying a 4.0 average race finish despite winning four of the season’s 22 races. When he hasn’t been the best, he has made sure he was second.
Brown’s ability to fill van Gisbergen’s shoes and put himself in a championship-winning position impressed Mark Skaife, who labelled the 26-year-old’s efforts an “extraordinary achievement."
“One of the things I think you’ve got to contemplate, is the shoes that Will Brown has had to fill,” Supercars Hall of Famer Skaife said on Thursday.
“He replaced Shane van Gisbergen, previous champion, and a guy that was probably accredited as the best driver in the field at the time.
“For him to come into a new team, and for him to put such a great campaign together this year, is an extraordinary achievement. He’s been very, very consistent, he’s been fast, he’s been dominant, and he leads the championship coming into this weekend.”
Brown and Feeney will commence their quests to clinch the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship at the VAILO Adelaide 500 on Thursday November 14. Tickets are on sale now.
