Will Brown has taken victory in Race 10 at the NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint, winning from pole in dominating fashion while the leading drivers in the championship found early trouble in the Repco Supercars Championship first race of the weekend on the Apple Isle.
It is the second win in three races for Toowoomba’s Brown, who also won from pole in the second race of last month’s Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint.
Celebrating his 100th Supercars race event this weekend, Brad Jones Racing’s Andre Heimgartner finished second in Race 10, his second podium of the 2023 season.
Red Bull Chevrolet Camaro driver Shane van Gisbergen finished third, sneaking past Tickford’s Cam Waters in the final corner on the final lap to secure his 172nd career podium, second most all-time.
“It felt like I had no speed for most of the day and just wallowed around, but we were able to make ground up through the field because the leading cars were taking themselves out,” commented van Gisbergen. “After our pit stop, my car did get a bit better as we’ve been struggling a bit today.
“The last lap was pretty interesting with Cam (Waters) – I’m not sure if he did side or rear tyres but he had nothing left at the end and we had a good battle for third. On days like today when you’re not the fastest car it’s good to have some luck at times, and I stayed out of trouble and tried to do the best I could.
“It’s very hard to have a clean whole year as you know, but guys like Brodie (Kostecki) especially has a lot of car speed over us, so we need to find some car speed first.”
Drama was almost instant in Race 10, as the top two drivers in the championship were collected in a chain reaction incident on Lap 2.
Series leader Brodie Kostecki and Waters came together at the Turn 4 hairpin, damaging the steering on Kostecki’s Coca-Cola Camaro and forcing him to pit for lengthy repairs.
The West Australian did return to the race but finished 23rd and six laps down.
The resulting check up of cars saw Chaz Mostert, who came into today second in the championship, spun out by Red Bull’s Broc Feeney. The two-time Bathurst 1000 winner, Mostert, suffered significant damage and was forced to retire from the race.
As a result, Mostert drops to fourth in the drivers’ championship, with van Gisbergen rising to second and today’s winner Brown elevating to third.
South Australian Scott Pye scored his first top five of the 2023 season with a fifth-place finish, while rookie Cam Hill for Truck Assist Racing scored his first career top 10 finish, coming home eighth.
Supercars action resumes on Sunday with back-to-back qualifying sessions for Races 11 and 12 from 9:50 a.m. AEST, followed by Race 11 at 1:05 p.m. and Race 12 at 3:50. (local time).
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