Opinion
It was very much the wild-west for the Supercars championship as the series travelled to Western Australia for the Perth SuperSprint as the third stop on this 2023 tour.
An epic Race 7 saw a pair of heavyweight brawlers lock horns, as well as further adjustments on the Gen3 parity front and much awaited contract news for the reigning champion.
Here are the talking points from the Perth SuperSprint.
The form of Erebus Motorsport and championship leader Brodie Kostecki picked up in Race 7 where it left off at the Melbourne SuperSprint, as the Coca-Cola racer leapt into the lead from the front-row.
Leading into Turn 1 ahead of Shane van Gisbergen, Kostecki commanded the early phase of the race before the Red Bull Ampol Camaro struck back on Lap 17, when the Kiwi went for a move at Turn 7.
Kostecki pitted on the following lap, giving the lead to van Gisbergen. Third placed starter David Reynolds benefitted from an undercut on Lap 17 to emerge ahead of Kostecki in the pit-stop cycle – while the reigning champion waited till Lap 27 for his compulsory pit-stop.
With a nine-lap tyre difference, it was inevitable that van Gisbergen would overhaul Kostecki for the win. However, the 25-year old was robust in his defence, covering where he could from the rampant Red Bull.
Neither driver relented, as Race Control sent a warning to Kostecki with a bad sportsmanship flag for blocking on the penultimate lap. Van Gisbergen then went for the race winning move at Turn 6, though it wasn’t without question marks.
Erebus post-race protested to the stewards, that they felt the Red Bull should’ve been penalised for that Turn 6 contact. The Kiwi barged his way through the inside of Kolb Corner, not dissimilar his race winning move in Race 2 on Chaz Mostert in Newcastle.
What colloquially is regarded as a ‘bump and run’, which a more extreme version of was seen in Race 8 when Anton De Pasquale sent Reynolds wide at Turn 7. For which De Pasquale was penalised 15-seconds.
Following the hearing on Sunday morning, it was announced ahead of Race 9 that van Gisbergen would indeed retain his victory from Saturday, with a steward’s statement reading ‘there was no evidence to substantiate any breach of the rules.’
Following a dismal start to the Perth SuperSprint on Saturday, Will Brown turned his fortunes around for the first of the two Sunday races and took a commanding win from pole position – as well as first ever one-two finish for Erebus.
A first win since the quartet of Sydney Motorsport Park rounds in 2021, Brown kept his Coca-Cola Camaro ahead of Reynolds off the front-row despite the pair initially having even starts.
Brown’s teammate Kostecki then picked off Reynolds by the end of the first lap, before the Penrite Mustang became fell afoul a lap later at Turn 7 with De Pasquale sending him wide and plummeted to 12th.
The pit-stops played out with Kostecki boxing on Lap 20 and Brown in on Lap 26, with van Gisbergen following the latter. From ninth on the grid, the 33-year old Kiwi recovered to fifth behind a much improved Mostert in fourth.
However it was a 6.2-second win for Brown ahead of Kostecki, with the result strengthening the Erebus squad’s lead in the championship – as well as Brodie’s lead in the driver’s standings. James Courtney flew the flag for Tickford, picking up a first podium of the season in third.
20-year old Broc Feeney again showcased his talent in Race 9 and saw off the speedy Erebus cars, converting pole position to third win in Supercars – as well as a third win in the last four events.
The Red Bull Ampol racer took his maiden victory at the season ending Adelaide 500 in 2022, in what was an impressive rookie season with the championship winning outfit. 2023 so far has seen the former Super2 champion continue going from strength-to-strength, winning in Melbourne last time out and now in Perth.
An even start with Brown off the front-row of the grid made for an interesting run into the first sequence of corners, however Feeney saw off the Coca-Cola Camaro to go on for a dominant 6.8-second win.
In setting the fastest lap also, Feeney scored 105-points which saw the youngster climb a spot in the rankings to fifth – 220-points adrift of Kostecki atop the standings.
Neither of the Erebus cars had an answer to Feeney’s immaculate run, emulating his predecessor in seven-time champion Jamie Whincup. Brown secured another podium, with a winless Kostecki finishing third to still secure the most points in the round.
Following the Australian Grand Prix support round, where the Chevrolet Camaros locked out the podium in all four races, Supercars conducted a CoG (centre of gravity) test at Tickford Racing’s base in the inner north of Melbourne.
Nine cars were scrutinised and a 2.3mm difference between the Camaro and the Ford Mustang was found and thus Supercars mandated a redistribution of weight in the Chevrolets, to equalise them with their Blue Oval rivals.
This meant there was 4.9kg of ballast redistributed aboard all fourteen of the Camaros during the Perth event. The weight has been moved to the rear of the car, behind the fuel cell – meaning the overall minimum weight of 1335kg hasn’t changed.
While the racing was competitive across, the benchmark operators were still Erebus Motorsport and the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team. The Mustang bagged a pair of podiums between Reynolds and Courtney, however the likes of Dick Johnson Racing again were struggling.
Having now sampled the Gen3 cars across three unique circuits, the racing has been excellent as seen with the Kostecki and van Gisbergen battle in Race 7. But as the cars continue to evolve and more tracks are raced at, the picture will become a lot more clearer.
The 33-year old will be going nowhere beyond 2023, having signed a fresh multi-year contract extension with the reigning team’s champions in the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team.
There was conjecture at the end of last year, that van Gisbergen may walk away from Supercars to ply his trade in NASCAR if he was not satisfied with the new Gen3 regulations in the Australian touring car series.
While a possible NASCAR berth may eventuate with Trackhouse Racing’s Project91, the Kiwi has affirmed his presence in Supercars with the team he’s won three championships with, as well as two Bathurst 1000s.
Van Gisbergen has been in the spotlight early this season, having been criticised by former champion turned commentator Mark Skaife for his candid initial feedback on the Gen3 regulations. However, the Kiwi is eager to see the cars evolve and is embracing the challenge of continuing to be the benchmark.
Shane van Gisbergen (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
“All these challenges we’ve had with the new cars will hopefully work themselves out as we keep updating the cars over the next few events,” the reigning champ said upon the announcement of his re-signing.
“It’s those challenges that keep it fresh and working with this team to understand those challenges and make the cars better is what I really enjoy.”
In an interview with Supercars broadcast host Jess Yates, van Gisbergen let slip that he’d have ‘at least one more year here,’ meaning perhaps the multi-year deal is only just still the end of 2024.
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