Brown holds off Whincup and van Gisbergen to score maiden win

Will Brown has denied Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen in a thrilling BP Ultimate Sydney SuperSprint finale.

Brown held off the jostling Red Bull Ampol Racing teammates in Race 28 to record his maiden Supercars race victory.

The 23-year-old’s win came in his 38th career start, with Brown helping Erebus Motorsport to its first win since Darwin 2020.

Toowoomba-born Brown became the 82nd different driver to win an ATCC/Supercars race.

He also became the second first-time winner of 2021 following Andre Heimgartner’s win in Tailem Bend.

Brown is also the first full-time rookie to win a race since a teenage Scott McLaughlin won at Pukekohe in 2013.

The end margin to Whincup was just 0.280s, with the top three covered by just 0.522s.

Pole-sitter Whincup and van Gisbergen ran cleanly through Turn 1, with Brown sweeping around the outside of Anton De Pasquale.

Zane Goddard surfed through the dirt at the exit of Turn 7 following a moment with Tim Slade, and managed to avoid further incident.

Mark Winterbottom also picked up damage on the left rear quarter; it corrected itself after several laps of rubbing.

Whincup kept van Gisbergen at an arm’s length; by lap 6 the margin between the two was 1.1s.

Van Gisbergen cut the gap to 0.8s three laps later, with Brown 1.1s behind the points leader.

De Pasquale and Chaz Mostert stopped on lap 11; Mostert took on two tyres versus De Pasquale’s four, and leap-frogged the #11 Shell V-Power Racing Team Mustang.

Brown stopped for two tyres on lap 13, and emerged ahead of Mostert. Three laps later, Whincup stopped from the lead and took on three tyres.

An undercut and shorter stop paid dividends for both Brown and Mostert, with Whincup returning to the race behind the #25 Mobil 1 Appliances Online entry.

When van Gisbergen stopped from the lead on lap 19, Brown was 2.9s ahead of Mostert, who was one second ahead of Whincup.

Van Gisbergen took on three tyres and emerged behind Brown, Mostert, Whincup and De Pasquale, and ahead of Nick Percat.

After van Gisbergen’s out lap, the margin to Brown was six seconds with 12 laps remaining.

Van Gisbergen cleared De Pasquale on lap 21 at Turn 4, and set off after his teammate.

On the following lap, Whincup and van Gisbergen cleared Mostert and pushed each other to Brown.

Van Gisbergen made light contact at Turn 8, and the battle carried on into Lap 24.

After a lap of aggression from both drivers, Whincup was ordered to let van Gisbergen through on lap 25.

The combat between Whincup and van Gisbergen let Brown off the hook, with the #9 Shaw and Partners Commodore extending his lead to 3.7s.

Light rain arrived with seven laps remaining, and both Red Bull Ampol Racing drivers remonstrated on the radio.

Critically, Whincup put in his best lap of the race on lap 26, with the margin to Brown slashed to 1.9s.

All the while, Percat and Mostert demoted De Pasquale to sixth, with Todd Hazelwood seventh ahead of Scott Pye, Cameron Waters and Brodie Kostecki.

Hazelwood cleared De Pasquale on lap 28 and set off after Mostert and Hazelwood.

With five laps remaining, the margin was 1.6s, but Brown responded with his personal best first sector of the race.

With four laps remaining, Whincup and van Gisbergen were still nose to tail, but Brown’s lead was just 0.8s.

Brown’s lead was just 0.4s when he commenced lap 30, with the top three covered by just 0.7s.

It was reduced to just 0.3s when Brown commenced the final lap, with the official margin 0.2808s when he crossed the line.

Percat, Hazelwood and Pye made it Commodores in the top six, with Waters the first Ford driver home in seventh.

Mostert and De Pasquale dropped to eighth and ninth, with Jack Le Brocq rounding out the top 10.

"I was sort of shitting myself a little bit when they were catching me," Brown said.

"I thought if I could bank them up into each other, they'd dogfight against themselves.

"It's what ended up happening, and their tyres were cooked.

"The best part was getting to do burnouts, that was sick."

The 2021 Repco Supercars Championship will resume next weekend at the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight.

Every session of the event will be broadcast live on Foxtel (Fox Sports 506) and streamed on Kayo.

The Seven Network will provide live free to air coverage of the event.

Tickets for the event are on sale now.