Opinion
In what is an idyllic winter escape, the Supercars championship ventured to the Top End of Australia for another unpredictable and exciting Darwin Triple Crown.
Celebrating their Indigenous Round too, as many sporting codes in Australia have become accustomed to, with gorgeous and unique liveries for all twenty-six cars.
From a veteran breaking a seven-year win drought, to another Ford catching fire here were the key talking points from Darwin.
In an emphatic and emotional Race 13 to open the Darwin Triple Crown, Mark Winterbottom broke through to claim victory for the first time in seven years and a maiden win for Charlie Schwerkolt’s Team 18.
Frosty, the 2015-Supercars champion last won a race back in 2016 at Pukekohe for the now Tickford team. A stalwart of Ford, Winterbottom defected to Holden in 2019 and the struggling Team 18.
The Melbourne based team tasted champagne from the podium for the first time at Hidden Valley Raceway back in 2020, as Winterbottom’s teammate Scott Pye claimed three podiums across the two events there during that pandemic affected schedule.
From the second row of the grid, Winterbottom vaulted into contention and challenged pole sitting Cameron Waters for the lead. However, Waters made it as far as Lap 4, before his Monster Energy Mustang was engulfed in flames and put the polesitter out of the race.
Winterbottom inherited the lead and survived the compulsory pit-stop, which was undertaken by the majority of the field immediately after the Safety Car was deployed. The DEWALT Camaro opened up a lead over Broc Feeney in the Red Bull Camaro, before another Safety Car was brought out on Lap 16 to put out a grass fire.
Feeney challenged Winterbottom for the win on the final lap, but the 600-plus race veteran held on for that long awaited win for he and Schwerkolt’s team. Frosty’s former teammate Will Davison completed the podium, for Dick Johnson Racing’s first trip to the rostrum in 2023.
After setting a blistering 1:05.902 in the final part of qualifying for pole position ahead of Race 13, there was little doubt that Waters would be on for his first win since Newcastle earlier in the season.
The 28-year old executed well at the start and held off a tilt from former Tickford teammate Winterbottom, though the race unravelled for Waters on Lap 4 when his Monster Energy Mustang was caught ablaze.
Waters thankfully ejected himself from the flaming car promptly and was unharmed, though the race was over for the polesitter.
“It was on fire down the front straight and when I got to Turn 1, the engine shut off, had a long pedal, and there was fire everywhere,” Waters explained from the Tickford garage when interviewed.
Following an investigation by Supercars, a loose fuel fitting was confirmed to be the cause of this latest fire. Unrelated to the separate incidents at the Melbourne SuperSprint for fellow Ford drivers James Courtney and Nick Percat.
In a miraculous effort by the Tickford crew, who’ve already accumulated a hefty damage bill so far in 2023, the Monster Energy Mustang was fully repaired with tools finally down at 3:30am.
Waters raced back from a lowly 25th in Race 14 to twelfth, after being caught at the tail-end of the field in qualifying along with a host of other key drivers. A top five finish in Race 15 banked some decent points in the end, after another difficult weekend.
The two quickfire qualifying sessions ahead of the pair of Sunday races, really delivered a mixed bag of results with Feeney and Matt Stone Racing’s Jack Le Brocq sharing pole positions and a whole host of drivers being out of position.
Conditions didn’t yield the ideal track as seen in Saturday’s qualifying, however capitalising ahead of Race 15 was the former Super2 runner-up who claimed his first career pole in Supercars and the first pole for Matt Stone Racing.
The Queensland based Chevrolet outfit did stun at the Tasmania SuperSprint with their qualifying performances, with Le Brocq featuring on the front-row. However translating that over to another circuit is testament to the progress the team is making and the diversity in the category.
Key drivers such as Race 13 winner Winterbottom, Waters, Chaz Mostert and Anton De Pasquale who was fastest in Friday practice, all featured at the back of the field in qualifying for the first of the Sunday races.
While for Race 15, Andre Heimgartner put his Brad Jones Racing Camaro on the front-row with Le Brocq and Winterbottom heading up the second row with Feeney.
30-year old Le Brocq converted superbly from pole position to win Race 15 ahead of Heimgartner and Feeney, taking the young Matt Stone Racing squad’s first win in the Supercars championship.
It was also Le Brocq’s second career win, with the first having come back in 2020 at Sydney Motorsport Park, where he triumphed for Tickford amongst a race of varied tyre strategies and limited compounds.
The Truck Assist Camaro effectively led every lap of the race, covering off Heimgartner in the compulsory pit-stop and ending up with a 2.1-second win over the Kiwi and a further 2.8-seconds back to Feeney.
Son of the legendary Jim Stone of the famous former Supercars outfit Stone Brothers Racing, Matt Stone progressed with his squad into the main game in 2018, after being a stalwart in the development Super2 series. 2020 saw them expand to two cars with Le Brocq joining the team in 2022.
Le Brocq becomes the seventh different winner from fifteen races so far in this Gen3 era, following Winterbottom’s emphatic win earlier in the weekend. Highlighting how smaller teams like Matt Stone’s and Team 18 are benefitting from the new technical regulations.
Broc Feeney’s habit of winning on Sundays continued in Darwin, with another race win converted from pole position during Race 14.
A fourth win of the season came having seen off a challenge from Brad Jones Racing’s Heimgartner, who ultimately then lost out second to Feeney’s teammate and reigning champion Shane van Gisbergen.
Feeney gapped Heimgartner in the first stint, leaving the Kiwi to fend off a hard charging van Gisbergen. The 20-year old pitted took his compulsory stop on Lap 19, after Heimgartner which allowed the latter to get back within a second.
Though again Feeney fended off the R&J Batteries Camaro, allowing teammate van Gisbergen who pitted on Lap 25 to reel in his compatriot on fresher tyres for a Red Bull Ampol Racing one-two.
The championship leading Erebus cars finished fourth and fifth, but the results for Feeney through the weekend allowed him to move into third in the standings behind Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown.
After finishing third in Race 15, Feeney secured the round win with the most points of anyone. That ultimately brought him to within 91-points of standings leader Kostecki, who in turn had one of the more difficult weekends of the season so far.
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