Almost a month had passed since the season-opening Bathurst 500 for the 2024 Supercars championship, as the appetite for racing became ravishing ahead of the Australian Grand Prix support round in Melbourne.
With shortened sprint races due to being relegated out of the pit lane and question marks around Supercars’ future as a Formula One undercard, here are the talking points from Albert Park.
A win complimented by three podium appearances, has seen new Red Bull Ampol Racing recruit Will Brown clinch the Larry Perkins trophy at the conclusion of the Melbourne SuperSprint.
The trophy named in honour of the eponymous six-time Bathurst 1000 champion and former Formula One driver, is won by the driver who’s accumulated the most points across the F1 support round.
Brown’s Race 6 saw him rise from ninth, to finish behind eventual race winner Nick Percat. But ahead crucially of his teammate and championship rival Broc Feeney.
Despite two wins across the weekend for Feeney, Brown’s consistency in a quartet of podium finishes earned him the trophy at the end.
Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert was within potential reach of the round win, being 63 points off the lead coming into Sunday’s Race 6. But an early clash with Matt Payne laid waste to any hope of that for the Ford driver.
The former Bathurst 1000 winner hadn’t won a race since the Sydney Motorsport Park’s ad nauseam of races in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, back when Percat was with Brad Jones Racing.
A difficult spell for the South Australian at Walkinshaw Andretti United saw only the one podium finish achieved at the 2022 Adelaide 500 – where the team gleaned that infamous one-two result in what was Holden’s farewell weekend.
Percat switched to Matt Stone Racing for 2024 and appears to have already been buoyed ahead of this Race 6 win, taking the chequered flag 0.381 seconds ahead of the championship-leading Brown.
“I wanted to quit, and now Round 2, we’ve won a race. It’s seriously amazing. Last 18 months, hated every second of that mob. So honestly, the moment I walked into MSR, I knew this is where I needed to be,” said an emotional Percat following the race.
It often feels that the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team doesn’t get the plaudits it deserves for being such a well-oiled machine, despite the drivers and the car continuing to deliver clinical performances.
After sweeping the Bathurst 500 to start the 2024 season, Feeney and Brown continued their winning ways at Albert Park with Feeney winning Races 3 and 5 – while Brown capitalised on a late-race error from his teammate in Race 4 to win.
Feeney is in his sophomore season with the powerhouse Triple Eight team, while Brown has already enjoyed a successful start to life with the multiple teams’ championship winners.
The latter leads the standings coming out of Melbourne, with a 17-point lead over his teammate.
Red Bull in the teams’ standings is 448 points clear of their nearest competitor in Grove Racing. Last year’s champions in Erebus are down in fifth overall, with Walkinshaw Andretti United sitting sixth, Tickford seventh and DJR a lowly tenth.
As discussed below, their rivals have shown flashes of speed – though in terms of execution have been lacking.
A key point, given the extensive off-season efforts by Supercars to bridge the gap between the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang.
With again another round sweep for the Camaros at the Melbourne SuperSprint, the Blue Oval will be ruing another missed opportunity with the front-row sitting Payne and Cameron Waters crashing out of Race 5 on Lap 2.
Payne, in his sophomore season with Grove Racing, claimed his career first pole position for the third of four races at Albert Park.
Waters, now sitting a lowly sixteenth in the standings after two rounds – hoping to rebound after a challenging Bathurst 500.
The Monster Energy Mustang stripped the lead off Payne into the first corner at the start of the race. The following lap, the Penrite Mustang sought to fight back, before getting a touch from Waters.
Though coming out of the penultimate corner, Payne moved way to the left and then made full contact with Waters – launching the former Sandown 500 winner into the outside wall of Turn 14.
Both drivers were out of the race, but their respective teams got the cars repaired for Sunday’s Race 6 – with no sanctions either.
Waters did, however, proceed to the stricken Penrite Mustang for an exchange with Payne – before slamming his passenger door.
The 2015 Supercars champion Mark Winterbottom made a welcome return to the podium during Race 4, finishing behind Brown, the winner, after starting fourth.
It was Frosty’s second trip to the podium for Team 18, the first being that emphatic victory in Darwin last year. As well as celebrating the second place, Winterbottom also hailed the shortened race format for the weekend.
With Formula 2 having taken over Supercars’ traditional garage space in the pit lane, the category has been unable to perform pit stops for this round and thus has reverted to a quartet of 14-lap sprint races.
“The racing is ridiculous. The Passes, the urgency and the chaos going on, it’s actually really good,” the 42-year-old opined after the race in Parc Fermé.
“We’re all pushing as hard as we can. It’s cars four-wide, bombing down the indie, switchbacks. Like, it’s just so much going on. I think that’s the best racing we’ve seen in this category for a long time.”
Mark Winterbottom driver of the #18 DEWALT Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and Matthew Payne driver of the #19 Penrite Racing Ford Mustang GT during race 2 of the Melbourne Supersprint. (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
It was one of the few positive sentiments around the Supercars event at the Australian Grand Prix this year.
Supercars is in a unique situation with its public image currently, following the parity farce of 2023, the Brodie Kostecki saga that was raging ahead of the season opener in Bathurst and the general sense of dissatisfaction with the category’s owners in RACE.
While Supercars made plenty of noise in regard to being booted out of the traditional pit lane and garages that they’ve long occupied, as well as the fans not being permitted access to the makeshift paddock – they’re still a vital drawcard to the overall F1 event.
The Formula 1 circus has always been enthralled with the Supercars championship and it was a positive move when it finally received points-paying races – so it would be a loss if they were to disappear altogether from the grand prix.
Yes, the locking out of fans to access the Supercars paddock is not great. But neither is having a championship still only completing the bare minimum round to satisfy a broadcast arrangement for example.
As the saying goes, there are bigger fish that need frying at present for Supercars.
The short races without pit-stops have proved a hit for this event in 2024, though there’s the need for next year to allow access to fans.
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