Brown reacts to unlikely profit despite 'disappointing' Taupō

For the first time since November 2023, Will Brown didn’t stand on a Supercars podium.

Yet somehow, the Triple Eight Race Engineering star still extended his championship lead over his closest rival.

Brown finished fifth, seventh and eighth at the ITM Taupō Super 440, and is now the only driver to finish every race in the top 10 this season.

Triple Eight went without a podium for the first time since August 2023, when neither car finished in the top three at The Bend. Brown, meanwhile, saw his own podium streak end at 14 rounds.

Remarkably, Brown left New Zealand with a bigger gap over Cam Waters, who finished 14th and 12th in the final two races. After entered the weekend seven points apart, Brown is 34 points ahead.

“It wasn't our best weekend to be honest,” Brown said.

"For a lot of people, fifth, seventh and eighth probably still is a consistent weekend and a lot of people would be happy with that.

“But it's ended our podium streak which is a little bit disappointing and it was definitely a tough weekend.

"But I think we captured pretty much the most points we could with what we had."

The 11-time race winner is determined to bounce back in Tasmania, given Matt Payne out-scored him by 103 points in New Zealand. In one weekend, Payne slashed his deficit to Brown from 149 to 46 points.

Chaz Mostert also slashed his deficit to Brown from 134 to 86 points, with Brodie Kostecki just 111 points behind.

The defending champion, though, is only looking to his closest rival, with the margin back to Waters now five times bigger than it was coming into the weekend.

"Starting from 12th in [Sunday’s] race, I sort of made a mistake when I pitted, the guys weren't ready and it was probably a bit too early, so I had to manage the tyre a lot for the stints home,” Brown said.

"I think it didn't impact our race overall too badly but still it definitely did hurt us. So a little bit disappointing.

"Hopefully we can bounce back in Tassie... it wasn't our weekend but we didn't lose too many points and we actually gained points in the championship which was quite amazing.

"There's a few people like Matt Payne that are doing a fantastic job and others that are coming back a little bit so we need to have a strong weekend in Tassie."