WHILE his pursuit of a second TCR Australia title has rapidly fallen apart, Will Brown hopes he’s filled his quota of bad luck for 2023 as a Supercars shot awaits.
Brown kickstarted his Supercars championship challenge with a stellar Sunday in Perth, winning a race and finishing second in the other.
He’s fourth in the standings, 171 points behind Erebus Motorsport teammate Brodie Kostecki – and within 35 of three-time champion Shane van Gisbergen.
It’s been a very different story in TCR land for the 24-year-old though.
Having won the 2019 crown and been a narrow runner-up to Tony D’Alberto last year, Brown entered the season a leading contender following his upgrade to the newer-spec Audi which powered Jay Hanson to a string of pole positions last year.
What has eventuated is endless mechanical gremlins across the opening two rounds at Symmons Plains and Phillip Island, leaving Brown anchored to the bottom of the standings.
“Obviously it’s very disappointing for the fellas, we’re not really in the championship hunt at all now,” he told V8 Sleuth.
“We have pretty much nearly had six DNFs in the first six races really, we were just limping it around for the last race at Phillip Island.
“We’ll just keep the ball rolling, but the Supercar is my main focus.
“It’s disappointing what’s happened in TCR but it’s great that Supercars is going so well.”
Besides TCR, Brown has extensive and diverse experience of campaigning for championships, with titles in Formula 4 and Toyota 86 and runner-up mantles in Formula Ford and Super2 to his credit.
Helping his progress has been the healthy competition with Kostecki.
Brown had the upper hand in 2021 before Kostecki turned the tables last year and has carried that forward to now lead the championship.
“He has done an awesome job in the last 18 months and I’ve definitely been pushing him along as well,” said Brown.
“A few things haven’t gone my way but it’s one-all, we’ll see how we go this year.
“We’re always having a joke between each other but it’s a very healthy relationship between us and trying to push each other forward: there’s no ‘he’s winning the championship and I’ve got any angst towards it’.
“We just want to work the best we can and he has done a fantastic job.
“I obviously just need to pick my game up a bit and put it to him a bit more.”
Next up on the Supercars calendar is Symmons Plains this weekend.
Brown finished third in his maiden Super2 race in Tasmania in 2017 but has not matched or bettered that result since at the venue.
Symmons Plains was however the site of his first top five in a solo Supercars race two years ago.
