How Pye rebuilt confidence after 'wake-up call'
Scott Pye had to rebuild confidence after Bathurst crash
Pye crashed Will Brown's car in Thursday afternoon practice
Brown leads by extended 204 points after crucial podium
Few drivers were under as much pressure on Bathurst race day than Scott Pye, who helped deliver Will Brown a crucial podium just three days after a confidence-smashing crash.
Brown and Pye finished third in a Repco Bathurst 1000 dominated by the sister Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup car and Erebus Motorsport's Brodie Kostecki/Todd Hazelwood.
Pye kicked off the race weekend with a shock crash in Thursday afternoon practice, putting the championship-leading crew on the back foot.
While the car underwent straightforward repairs, an apologetic Pye had to pull it together for the rest of the weekend, given Brown had a championship lead to defend.
As the team worked on improving the #87 as a race car, Pye slowly regained his composure, before turning in an error-free performance on Sunday to hand Brown a podium-clinching opportunity.
“Thursday was a bit of a wake-up call,” Pye said after Sunday's race.
“This place can bite really hard, really quick. The Hard tyre around here is tricky… I was at the backend of my first race run, probably tried to go a little bit quicker than what I actually had.
"The thing that probably had knocked my confidence the most, was not actually the accident, but just how much I was probably struggling with balance of the car prior to it.
“That’s what was kind of on my mind a lot until I did the second race run in the next co-driver practice, and that was when I felt good. We did a lot of work on the car through Will’s practice sessions.
“That gave me all my confidence that I need back then. We’ve had a lot of crashes as drivers, unfortunately I’ve missed plenty of apexes and shunted a few times."
Brown now heads to the Gold Coast 204 points ahead of his closest rival with 600 points left to win. Thursday crash aside, Pye did his part to near perfection, winning Sandown and claiming a Great Race podium to help Brown into the box seat.
Should Brown get the job down, Pye said he would take immense pride in helping him get there.
“The worst thing of those is it’s so early in the week, and you create so much work for the crew. There is no worse feeling as a driver than tearing a car up early in the weekend," Pye added.
“From that point on, the weekend got more on track. The car was much more in the window. We just kept chipping away, unfortunately we didn’t have the pace of the front two.
“It was a good feeling to be on the podium, no doubt. I’d love to win this race. I really, really want to win this race.
“But the most important thing when you look back after today, is we've put Will in a good position to go home now and capitalise in the last two events and win the championship, and I’d be very proud to say I was a part of that."
The 2024 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 on October 25-27. Tickets for the event are on sale now.
Live coverage can be found on Foxtel, with live streaming available on Kayo. The Seven Network will take free to air coverage. International viewers can follow all the action on Superview.
