This is it. Crunch time.
For months Supercars drivers have avoided talking about the title. With so many points up for grabs in Sandown and Bathurst, anything but extreme caution is highly recommended.
But now the endurance season is upon us, and things are getting serious.
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Two races in two fortnights. Two 300-point hauls.
The winner takes it all, but a single slip-up could cost our championship contenders everything.
And fate isn’t entirely in their own hands, with their choice of co-driver every bit as important to their title hopes as their own performances.
The stakes are higher, and so too is the jeopardy.
Who can master the enduro season?
PIT TALK PODCAST: After turning a front-row lockout into a two-three finish behind an excellent Charles Leclerc, McLaren has some serious thinking to do about how it approaches the drivers championship.
BROWN HAS THE MOST TO LOSE
Will Brown has led the championship since round 1, but his title lead is down to just 81 points as rival teams have caught up to challenge Triple Eight.
Key to his longevity at the top of the table is his consistency. Though he’s won only three races, he’s finished off the podium only four times all year. If he’s not there, he’s always thereabouts, controlling as many variables as he can.
But defence of that lead is now partly in the hands of co-driver Scott Pye.
Brown and Pye have never worked together. While title rivals Chaz Mostert and Broc Feeney have won races with their respective co-drivers before, the Brown-Pye partnership is untested, making it a potential weakness.
But Pye does have one advantage up his sleeve.
The 34-year-old’s 11-season full-time Supercars career ended only last year. Crucially that means he has a full year in a Gen3 Camaro under his belt.
“Straight off a full-time season last year is probably the best you can get a co-driver,” Brown said.
“He’s really good, even with set-up changes and all of that — he can feel the car and knows what he wants out of it.
“It’s great working with him. I’m seeing if I can even pick at his brain, if there’s anything we can learn there, but he’s jumped right in the car and felt at home.
“He was fast last year as a full-time driver, so I’m looking forward to having him beside me this year.
“We’ve got to go into Sandown and try and have a good weekend.”
Pye has also had a long run-up to his endurance co-drive, having agreed to join Triple Eight before the end of last season. He’s had his eyes on the prize all year.
And he says he feels no burden from knowing Brown’s title hopes partially rest on his performance.
“There’s no more pressure I would say on me because he is leading the championship,” he told V8 Sleuth.
“My expectation and hope was that we could go to Bathurst and Sandown with a chance to win those events, and that’s why ultimately I worked so hard early last year to get in this position with Triple Eight, because I really believed that, come Bathurst and Sandown, that puts me in the best position to win.
“That has its own pressure, but I don’t think his position in the championship changes anything in those events, because my original expectation was always to try to win.”
Will Brown previews Sandown 500 | 03:36
MOSTERT HAS THE MOMENTUM
Chaz Mostert’s title challenge has been building steadily and consistently since winning his first race of the season in Perth.
He’s 81 points adrift of the lead, but he’s outscored Brown by 23 points per round dating back to Wanneroo. If he were to continue scoring points at that same rate, he could pinch the championship on the final weekend in Adelaide.
The single-race enduro rounds disrupt the rhythm he’s been building, but on his side is the familiar Lee Holdsworth to smooth the transition.
The partnership was immediately successful at its inception, winning the 2021 Bathurst 1000 from pole position. Mostert-Holdsworth is the only active pairing on the grid this year to have tasted victory at Mount Panorama.
The duo came close to a podium in the Great Race again last year, finishing fourth.
Reuniting again this season will be like slipping into an old pair of comfortable slippers.
“We’ve got a good team here and we just enjoy each other’s company,” Holdsworth said.
“I think you get the best the best out of each other when you’re having fun, and we enjoy ourselves.
“[Mostert] and I muck around, but once the helmet goes on we take it pretty seriously. We both like the same car, the way the car handles. All the characteristics of the car we want the same, so that goes a long way.
“Every time I’m out there, every time he’s out there, all the feedback is the same and we’re working towards the same goal.
“Obviously Chaz is in a position where he can definitely fight for this championship, and he is at the moment and it’s fantastic to see. Hopefully I can help him out with that.”
The first challenge facing this pair will be putting to bed their Sandown demons.
Mostert has a pair of second-place finishes to show for a career racing at the Sandown 500. Holdsworth has a single third after almost two decades in the sport.
Last year’s race was disastrous for Walkinshaw Andretti United, which struggled badly on the supersoft tyre in a generally unloved campaign.
Reversing that luckless trend will be crucial.
“The [Sandown] 500 has always me eluded me for whatever reason,” Mostert said. “I’ve had some really fast cars over the years but just really struggled.
“It’s one I want to try and get my name on at some point, but it’s a tough race. It’s the first enduro. Everything needs to go right. Teams need to be well prepared. Drivers need to be on it. It’s a pretty tricky little track as well.”
If they can turn that form around this year, it’ll be a significant boost to Mostert’s title hopes.
“I’ve got the combination of Holdsy again this year, which is fantastic,” he enthused.
“Lee is obviously a fantastic co-y. What we did a couple of years ago at Bathurst was pretty special.
“It’s kind of our grand final-esque couple of rounds coming up, but then you’ve still got the championship to run for the whole year as well.
“Full steam ahead. We want wins, and if you get wins, the rest looks after itself.”
Tander chasing Sandown 500 redemption | 00:47
FEENEY IN SEARCH OF REDEMPTION
If you’re searching for an example of the duality of pleasure and pain of Supercars endurance racing, look no further than Broc Feeney’s 2023 experience.
The young gun was mounting an unlikely title bid in just his second season when the sport hit the enduros, and a gutsy victory at the Sandown 500 massively boosted his odds.
He looked set to carry that momentum through to Bathurst, qualifying on the front row and looking good to claim at least second place after several times having to double stack in pit lane.
But then his race was cut cruelly short 19 laps from the finish by a gearbox problem.
He was classified 23rd, costing him more than 200 points to eventual champion Brodie Kostecki.
He finds himself in a surprisingly similar situation again this year.
At last year’s preceding race in Tailem Bend, Feeney came off second best in a tangle with Dave Reynolds that dropped him to 25th at the flag. It put him 228 points down on the lead.
This year it was a late clash with Thomas Randle that dropped him to 15th at the flag in Tasmania. He’s now 198 points of the lead as he heads to Sandown.
For the second year in a row he needs a pair of big results to revitalise his title campaign.
“I’ve got all the confidence in the world as a team and a line-up that we can certainly be fighting for the win,” he said. “The goal going there is to win the race and nothing less.
“I don’t really look at (Sandown) as a lead-in to Bathurst. It’s equal points.
“I want to win both of the races. The two biggest events for us for the year and it’s 600 points, which I need at the moment.
“For me, they are two races to get back in the championship fight. Obviously I would love to go back to back at Sandown, but I would love to have the chance to try and do the double in the enduros.”
For the third season in a row he can count on having one of the greatest to have ever done it fighting alongside him.
Co-drivers don’t come much better decorated than Jamie Whincup.
Whincup isn’t just a seven-time champion; he’s also a 10-time Sandown winner, and he’s conquered Bathurst a further four times.
“I’m rapt to be teaming up with Broc again,” he said. “He did such a good job at Sandown last year.
“He’s still a kid. He’s still in his early 20s. It’s crazy though that he’s almost about to finish his third season in the main series, which means I’ve been retired for three years, which is crazy to think as well.”
Whincup out for Bathurst redemption | 00:48
But even for Whincup the challenge of redemption at Bathurst looms large.
“I’m still gutted for him not to get his first Bathurst win,” he said. “We felt like we were in the box seat and it didn’t quite eventuate. Fingers crossed we can put our best foot forward and go up there this year and give it a red-hot crack.”
Feeney said he couldn’t be more motivated to correct the record.
“I think that makes it an extra special feeling knowing last year we finished right at the back due to a problem,” he said.
“I’m certainly fired up to get back there, I cannot wait. You always can’t wait for Bathurst, but it is just that extra little fuel in the fire to strive for a better result.”
With a big points gap to close, he’ll need it too.
CAM WATERS HANGING ON
Tickford’s form has snowballed into an outside title challenge in recent months, with the consecutive podium-finishing weekends proving the team’s finally got a handle on its Gen3 Mustang.
Waters has seized on his car’s improving speed to collect three victories three other podiums, making himself an unlikely championship challenger from fourth in the standings.
Waters is 350 points off the lead and will need circumstances to swing his way to have a genuine crack come Adelaide in November, but nailing his performances in Sandown and Bathurst would give him a golden chance to apply some pressure to the leaders.
“It’s good to have a bit of momentum going into the enduro season,” he said. “The car’s been really good over the last few rounds, which is awesome.
“I love racing at Sandown. I won there in 2017. As a team we’re usually pretty strong at Sandown as well. I’m pretty pumped to be racing there.”
For the fourth season in succession he’ll partner James Moffat, the reigning Australian Trans Am champion with whom he’s already collected a pair of Bathurst podiums.
Last year’s campaign wasn’t among them, however, with a 20th-place finish in Sandown followed by a race-ending crash on Mount Panorama.
“We had a lot of bad luck last year in the enduro campaign, so hopefully we can put that behind us and have a bit of good luck this year,” Waters said.
“It’s awesome to have Moff in the car again. He just slots straight into the car and there are no issues and he just gets along with the whole team. It’s awesome.
“Super pumped to be doing the enduro campaign with Moff again, and hopefully we can get some good results this year.”
Source Agencies
