WILL Brown concedes a ‘balls-up’ on his behalf cost him a shot at making the Top 10 Shootout for the Bathurst 1000.
While his Erebus Motorsport teammate Brodie Kostecki claimed provisional pole, Brown brought Friday’s qualifying session to a halt just moments into his first flying lap when he crashed into the tyre barrier on the outside of Griffins Bend.
Once extracted from the tyres, Brown was able to drive the #9 Camaro back to the pits, where the Erebus crew repaired the car in time for him to take part in the session.
“Just a balls-up, really, to be honest,” Brown told Fox Sports.
REPORT: Kostecki fastest in interrupted Bathurst qualifying
“I just locked a front (brake). I was running second (gear through Griffins Bend) in practice and I thought third would be a bit faster in qualy.
“I probably went in a bit hot and thought ‘shit, I’m not gonna pull it up’ and did the stupid thing of jumping on the brake more and locked it up and just went straight ahead.
“Completely my fault. Really sorry (for) the team because they’ve done such a mega effort and even got me back out there.
“Just a silly mistake and paid the consequences.”
However, not all the damage was able to be repaired, and Brown was only able to secure 17th on the grid for Sunday’s race for he and co-driver Jack Perkins.
“I think the splitter was up a little bit or something,” Brown explained.
“I was alright until I got to under the tree (at Reid Park) and the high-speed stuff and I’d just lose heaps of time.”
Brown nevertheless is upbeat about his prospects for race day, with teammate Brodie Kostecki claiming provisional pole and both Erebus Camaros featuring near or at the top of the timesheets across the weekend so far.
“We’ve got a really fast car, just got to not make any mistakes,” Brown said.
“I’m sure we can pick off a few. In hindsight it’s disappointing, but if you have a double-stack (then) you’re back there straight away.
“We’ll just claw our way up through the first half of the day and then see where we end up.”
