Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Qualifying Challenges
Red Bull Ampol Racing faced significant setbacks during qualifying sessions in Townsville, with both Will Brown and Broc Feeney encountering difficulties. Brown, a championship leader, saw a strategic gamble backfire, while Feeney continued to struggle with his car’s performance.
In the qualifying for Race 21, Will Brown initially held provisional pole. However, he chose to exit his #888 Red Bull Ampol Ford Mustang before the final runs in Q2. This decision was part of a planned gamble to preserve fresh tyres for the 200km race on Saturday. Despite his hopes, times tumbled in the final moments, leaving Brown in 12th position, nearly 0.5 seconds off the ultimate pace.
Brown explained his reasoning post-session, stating that running another set of tyres to get into the Shootout would mean having no green tyres for the Shootout itself. He acknowledged the risk, noting, “We took the chance that we might not get through, but we’ll have greens and all that, We were hoping to get through, that was the plan, and it didn’t happen.” He added that the outcome was only “three, four spots worse off than we were going to start if we ran in that last one.”
Meanwhile, Broc Feeney, who recently lost the championship lead to Matt Payne, experienced further struggles. After qualifying 16th for Race 20 on Friday, he slumped to 18th in qualifying for Race 21. Before Q2, Feeney expressed his frustration to his engineer, Martin Short, remarking, “It’s more than a little bit of a think. Just slow.”
The challenges for Red Bull Ampol Racing extended to Friday’s qualifying for the NTI Townsville 500 opener. Both Red Bull Ampol Mustangs were relegated to low starting positions. This marked the first time in three years that the Banyo squad did not have any cars line up inside the top 15 on the grid. Broc Feeney started 16th, and Will Brown started 19th for that race.
Kostecki Secures Pole Position
In contrast to Red Bull Ampol Racing’s difficulties, Brodie Kostecki secured pole position for the NTI Townsville 500 opener. The Dick Johnson Racing driver, who was second-fastest in the preceding qualifying session, delivered a lap time of 1:12.6622s in the Top 10 Shootout.
Matt Payne, who entered the Shootout with the fastest provisional time, could not replicate his earlier performance, finishing with a 1:12.7708s lap, placing him 0.1086s behind Kostecki. Kostecki admitted to making a mistake at Turn 3 during his flying lap, which he initially feared might have cost him pole. He explained, “I turned in a little bit too early, turned in a little bit better than I expected and got four wheels over the inside kerb there. It just spat me off-line and had to grab the brake pedal again. I was really dirty with myself.”
Despite the error, Kostecki managed to recover, stating, “Just tried to clear my head before the next set of corners and really nailed the rest of the lap. Pretty pleased about that.” He also expressed confidence in his car’s performance for the race, noting, “The car has been fast in race trim.”
Other notable performances in the Shootout included Tickford Racing’s Thomas Randle, who climbed from sixth to third. Walkinshaw TWG Racing driver Ryan Wood dropped one place to fourth, while Randle’s teammate Cameron Waters also fell one place to fifth. Kostecki praised his team, saying, “All the boys and girls in the team have given me a great car all weekend. Just a pleasure to drive.”
Both Will Brown and Broc Feeney will aim to improve their positions in Race 21, which is scheduled to commence at 3:05pm AEST.
Source: supercars.com
