New Supercars champion Will Brown claimed an almost unbelievable victory within the twenty fourth and final race of the championship on the streets of Adelaide.
Brown recovered brilliantly from falling to last place after his Triple Eight Chevrolet was overturned by his former teammate Brodie Kostecki in turn seven early within the race.
As Brown recovered, it appeared that his teammate Broc Feeney and Walkinshaw Andretti United's Chaz Mostert were fighting for the win. It seemed that the matter can be decided in Mostert's favor when, after leaving the second stop, contact occurred between them.
Feeney, who had not yet entered the fast pit lane, regained the advantage but was assessed a 15-second penalty, effectively giving Mostert the victory.
However, even when Mostert discovered about this, he still defended his advantage and so they made contact. WAU's Ford was launched into the wall in turn 4 before Mostert limped back onto the track behind Feeney, who received a second 15-second penalty.
A smiling Brown emerged from the carnage and won by 9.123 seconds.
“This win makes me feel a little more like a champion, I never thought I could win it,” he said.
“It was a difficult yr, extremely stressful. I desired to get more race wins, there's nothing higher than winning the last one. “
Mostert kept fighting, swapping places and painting with Will Davison's Dick Johnson Racing Ford with three laps to go, these two and Tickford Racing's Tom Randle ran to the flag, Mostert simply held on to second place after Feeney dropped him from penalties until the eighth.
Mostert was upset to miss out on the win, but he didn't back down from attempting to fight Feeney.
“I was probably a little worried about that pace, if he had gone 15 seconds it might not have been enough,” Mostert admitted.
“After the pit stop, there was quite a bit of damage to the right front and I don't know what the rear tires were doing, but they weren't talking to each other.”
Third-placed Randle finished the yr with a powerful podium finish.
“I knew Chaz was limping, so I turned towards Will and was very happy to get the podium and fifth place in the championship,” Randle smiled.
Davison was fourth ahead of Nick Percat, Kosteck, Feeney, James Golding (PremiAir Racing Chevrolet), Andre Heimgartner (Brad Jones Racing Chevrolet) and Cam Waters, who needed to serve his own 15-second penalty within the Tickford Ford race.
Once again, the race featured two alternative drivers, Cooper Murray in an Erebus Motorsport uniform and Kai Allen entering the Grove Racing Ford after Richie Stanaway failed concussion protocol.
Ultimately, Brown won the title with 3,060 points, ahead of Feeney (2,838) and Mostert (2,667). Waters finished fourth with 2,551 points, ahead of Randle (2,032) and Matt Payne (2019).
Triple Eight won the dominant team championship with 5,868 points, followed by Tickford's 4,523 and WAU's 4,069.
There can be a variety of team and driver changes within the off-season before the 2025 championship – the primary with a series of three-round finals – kicks off at Sydney Motorsport Park on February 21-23.
