EREBUS Motorsport officially has a two-pronged championship battle on its hands after Will Brown cruised to victory in the Tasmania SuperSprint finale.
Brown is now just 87 points behind teammate Brodie Kostecki, who lost late ground to cede second place in Race 3 to Broc Feeney.
Brown made the perfect start from the outside of the front row to set up a comfortable victory, with a final margin of 3.9922s.
His last five race results now read: first, second, first, third, first.
The late story was all about Kostecki, whose pace suddenly dropped off in the second stint, losing out to Feeney and falling back into the clutches of Shane van Gisbergen.
Nursing a wounded car following a Race 2 crash, van Gisbergen took advantage of an undercut strategy to be challenging for a podium after starting ninth.
Van Gisbergen actually got past Kostecki at Turn 6 on Lap 35, only for Kostecki to return the favour at the same corner three laps later.
Kostecki led home van Gisbergen, with Jack Le Brocq and Chaz Mostert close behind.
Le Brocq had only just lost out to van Gisbergen during the pitstop phase, the NASCAR-bound Kiwi making a forceful pass at the hairpin.
Ford’s big hope leading into the race, Cam Waters, bogged down at the start, losing three places to immediately cripple his afternoon.
Waters ended up seventh – at least boosted by five bonus points for fastest lap – as Mark Winterbottom, Anton De Pasquale and Bryce Fullwood rounded out the 10.
There were several drivers to encounter problems, starting with James Golding getting sandwiched between Andre Heimgartner and Matt Payne.
Declan Fraser’s tough Sunday continued when he spun while trying to round up Macauley Jones and Jack Smith.
Nick Percat dropped out of contention for another top 10 when a brake pedal pad came loose, necessitating a long pit stop.
He finished 23rd ahead of Todd Hazelwood and Tim Slade; the former having had a bungled pitstop which will be investigated post-race by the stewards, and the latter affected by mechanical gremlins.
The other incident of note was when Heimgartner and James Courtney ran side-by-side down the pit straight and into the Turn 2 gravel trap together.
Next up on the Supercars calendar is the Darwin Triple Crown in mid-June.
Results: Race 3, Ned Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint
| Pos | No. | Driver | Team | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 | Will Brown | Erebus | Chevrolet | 42 laps |
| 2 | 88 | Broc Feeney | Triple Eight | Chevrolet | +3.9922s |
| 3 | 99 | Brodie Kostecki | Erebus | Chevrolet | +8.7320s |
| 4 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen | Triple Eight | Chevrolet | +9.8945s |
| 5 | 34 | Jack Le Brocq | MSR | Chevrolet | +10.4954s |
| 6 | 25 | Chaz Mostert | WAU | Ford | +10.6245s |
| 7 | 6 | Cam Waters | Tickford | Ford | +14.5238s |
| 8 | 18 | Mark Winterbottom | Team 18 | Chevrolet | +15.8104s |
| 9 | 11 | Anton De Pasquale | DJR | Ford | +16.7575s |
| 10 | 14 | Bryce Fullwood | BJR | Chevrolet | +18.1780s |
| 11 | 35 | Cameron Hill | MSR | Chevrolet | +19.5842s |
| 12 | 26 | David Reynolds | Grove | Ford | +21.1188s |
| 13 | 17 | Will Davison | DJR | Ford | +22.8498s |
| 14 | 55 | Thomas Randle | Tickford | Ford | +23.4594s |
| 15 | 20 | Scott Pye | Team 18 | Chevrolet | +23.7824s |
| 16 | 31 | James Golding | PremiAir | Chevrolet | +24.6498s |
| 17 | 8 | Andre Heimgartner | BJR | Chevrolet | +25.8735s |
| 18 | 4 | Jack Smith | BJR | Chevrolet | +33.6319s |
| 19 | 96 | Macauley Jones | BJR | Chevrolet | +36.5656s |
| 20 | 56 | Declan Fraser | Tickford | Ford | +37.7718s |
| 21 | 19 | Matthew Payne | Grove | Ford | +39.4165s |
| 22 | 5 | James Courtney | Tickford | Ford | +40.6039s |
| 23 | 2 | Nick Percat | WAU | Ford | +44.8144s |
| 24 | 3 | Todd Hazelwood | BRT | Ford | +48.9424s |
| 25 | 23 | Tim Slade | PremiAir | Chevrolet | +4 laps |
V8 Sleuth’s coverage of the 2023 NED Whisky Tasmania SuperSprint is proudly presented by ACL RACE Series – Proudly manufactured in Australia for over 70 years. Visit ACL Performance online here to check out more on the ACL RACE Series.
