5 key storylines: Championship Bullfight in Adelaide

It's title decider time, and despite holding a handy lead, Will Brown is far from home.

This weekend's VAILO Adelaide 500 will confirm the destiny of the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship, and on current numbers, the most consistent driver of the season in Brown will be hard to topple.

Broc Feeney has a superb record in Adelaide, winning in 2022 and finishing second last year. Victory on Saturday will set Feeney on the right path, but he needs Brown to trip over in order to have a crack at the crown.

However, there are 22 other drivers who don't give a rats about the top two, instead preparing to go hammer and tongs to end the year with a trophy. Should that prove to be the case, expect fireworks, and bent race cars.

Bulls on the grandest parade

Right from the outset, the new-for-2024 Red Bull Ampol Racing duo of Brown and Feeney established themselves as the benchmarks for the season, and are fittingly the two protagonists this weekend. Perhaps surprisingly it is the latter who is in the box seat in his first season at Banyo, and there is every chance that he could wrap up the title on Saturday. With a 180-point buffer back to Feeney, Brown needs to simply finish within sight of his teammate to wrap up his maiden Repco Supercars Championship, and could also become the first driver in 40 years (and sixth in Australian Touring Car Championship history) to claim a podium at every race meeting in a season. Many people questioned how Triple Eight would move on from Shane van Gisbergen, however Triple Eight, Feeney, and especially Brown have proven why they have been the benchmark for nearly the past 20 years in Supercars.

All to play for

Whilst the championship battle will be taking most of the attention this weekend, there are some other points battles to keep an eye on across the final 500km of the season. The Chaz Mostert/Cam Waters rivalry hasn't been as dramatic as it once was, but with 119 points separating the pair at a track where they both have had success in the recent past, there's every chance it could reignite once again. Meanwhile Matt Payne, James Golding, and Thomas Randle are all covered by only 71 points in the fight for fifth, with the trio all set to record their career best result in the standings. The battle for eighth is just as intense, with Nick Percat, Will Davison, Andre Heimgartner, and Anton De Pasquale separated by only 53 points. There is also a fierce battle for fifth in the teams standings, with Dick Johnson Racing, Erebus Motorsport, and Matt Stone Racing only covered by 33 points, and PremiAir Racing not far off the fight 83 points behind DJR.

Last hurrahs

As is always the case at the end of the season, several team and driver combinations will be parting ways at the end of the weekend. The most high-profile of these is Brodie Kostecki, who will depart Erebus Motorsport after a sensational 12 months saw him taste championship and Bathurst glory, with Dick Johnson Racing set to become his new home. De Pasquale will be the driver making way, as he ends his four-year stint at Stapylton to join Team 18 replacing fan favourite Mark Winterbottom. With no prospect of a competitive full-time drive, the 2013 Bathurst winner will shift to co-driving in 2025, and hasn't completely ruled out a full-time return in 2026, though admits it is unlikely. Another driver stepping away after Adelaide is hometown hero Tim Slade, who announced his full-time retirement ahead of Bathurst. Slade's replacement will be Richie Stanaway, who will move from Grove Racing after a difficult comeback season as a solo driver. It will also be the end of an era for the Supercars Championship as a whole, with the traditional season long points battle to make way for the Finals Series in 2025.

Can Kostecki continue late surge?

After a tumultuous season saw him enter Bathurst as the last of the 24 full-time drivers, Kostecki has been on an absolute tear in the past two events, dominating two of the past three races from pole position, including a breathtaking Bathurst weekend with Todd Hazelwood. Despite missing the first six races of the season, the 27-year-old is 19th in the standings, ahead of five other full-time drivers who haven't missed a race this year. However, this weekend marks the end of an era for the reigning drivers and teams champions, which fittingly comes at the scene of their crowning moment last year. Whilst Kostecki displayed awesome one lap speed to claim pole in both Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootouts, the races were a different story, with a conservative title-sealing run to sixth on Saturday followed by an eighth on Sunday. Based on his recent run of form, you wouldn't bet against the reigning champion adding another win or two to his tally before the highly successful relationship ends.

School's out, elbows out?

It's the last chance to make an impression before the talk shifts to 2025, where drivers and teams will want to get ahead of the mind games that will dictate the new era of racing towards the Finals. Just one race in Adelaide Supercars history has had a 100 percent finish record, and with drivers keen to improve their championship position, look for that record to stay intact. There was drama and incident aplenty 12 months ago, and there were new winners. If big names trip up, could there be a new winner again, and perhaps a third straight rookie victor?