WILL Brown is keen to diversify his racing program by stepping into rally competition one day.
The revelation comes after Brown sampled a rally car this week at Calder Park, as part of an Erebus Motorsport/Pedders crossover that had been two years in the making – dating back to Pedders taking naming rights on his Supercar at the 2021 Townsville doubleheader.
“When I rocked up (to Calder) and found out I was driving a rally car, let alone the Rally2, it was awesome,” Brown told V8 Sleuth.
“I had an absolute ball in the rally car, I jumped out with the biggest smile I’ve probably ever had in a race car, I absolutely loved it.
“It was something that you could sort of be out of control while in control.”
The 25-year-old’s drive came aboard the Renault Clio used by Scott Pedder in his 2014 title-winning ARC campaign. It was originally scheduled to be in Pedder’s Skoda Fabia R5, which Shane van Gisbergen drove to second in the 2022 National Capital Rally.
Brown subsequently confirmed a desire to try his hand at rallying.
“Definitely, 100 percent I’d love to have a go in a rally,” said Brown, who will replace van Gisbergen at Triple Eight next year.
“Obviously it would be a fairly big build-up; it’s great to jump in the car on a 4km circuit that you sort of can learn quickly, but to learn the notes and that would be a major thing.
“It would be something that would take me a fair bit to get used to but I’d definitely love to have a go one day.”
Further to that end, Brown continued: “I don’t think I have really ever said no to racing a car – I raced a Toyota Echo with Mark Griffith so I haven’t said no to much!
“I’ve always wanted to do as much racing as possible. Obviously for me Supercars is the be all and end all, but I still want to look outside that and do other racing to improve.”
The Calder opportunity marked his first visit to the historic Victorian circuit, and it left a lasting impression on him.
“I guess I didn’t expect Calder Park to be so big,” he said.
“I haven’t seen much on Calder in my racing career, so to roll up there and see how big the Thunderdome was and the track and the facility was quite amazing.
“It would be awesome to see it running again. It was really cool just to get out there and have a look at a part of motorsport history.”
