Triple Eight to review Brown/Feeney battle
Supercars
19 Aug
Triple Eight to review Will Brown/Broc Feeney battle in Tasmania
Feeney followed Brown after Thomas Randle ran wide with 11 laps to go
Randle hit Feeney out of third place five laps later
Triple Eight will review whether it could have handled its late-race intra-team battle that led to trouble for Broc Feeney, says Technical Director Jeromy Moore.
In Tasmania on Sunday, a robust battle between Will Brown and Thomas Randle for second saw the latter run onto the grass, helping Feeney through into third.
Brown survived and finished second, while Feeney crawled to 15th and Randle 18th after being hit with a penalty. The penalty was costly for Feeney, who is now 198 points behind Brown with four rounds to go.
The incident led to tense scenes post-race, as an apologetic Randle was turned away by Triple Eight Team Manager Mark Dutton in an altercation now being investigated by Motorsport Australia.
All told, Moore maintained the team is happy for its drivers to race each other, but said the race will be reviewed to “see if we could have done anything better there or not."
“As a team, we always like our drivers racing. We don’t want to lock the race down and make it boring for fans,” Moore said.
“At the end of the day, we’re an entertainment business, so we want to make sure that we’re putting on a good show and allow the drivers to do what they can for their own championship.
“But we’ll go back and have a look to see if we could have done anything better there or not. It’s always a tough decision to call a switch or not in the heat of the moment. You're never going to get it right 100 percent of the time.
"The main thing is to allow them to race as much as they can and leave it on the track and less in the pit bunker.”
Brown, who reiterated he "would listen to what the team says” should an order arise, ultimately lamented his lack of pace in the lead-up to the race-defining moment.
"We had really good pace, but I flat spotted a tire in the early stages of the first lap and I was limping the car home,” the points leader said.
"I was hoping we could do four tyres in the stop and change that front tyre, but unfortunately couldn’t due to a Safety Car. I managed to limp it home and have a great battle with Thomas.
"Unfortunately, and probably due to me being slow, Broc got spun around by Thomas. I felt it was a bit unfair, the move made on me, so we got into it. But overall it was a pretty good race."
The 2024 Repco Supercars will switch to enduro mode at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 on September 13-15. Tickets for the 60th anniversary event are on sale now.
