Feeney wins as Camaros dominate Darwin Race 2

BROC Feeney’s championship charge is gathering traction after collecting his fourth win of the season.

With victory in a Camaro-dominated Race 2 of the Darwin Triple Crown, Feeney becomes the youngest ever Supercars winner at Hidden Valley, eclipsing Rick Kelly’s record (having won as a 21-year-old in 2004).

Feeney has now closed to within 159 points of title leader Brodie Kostecki, who is 109 clear of his Erebus Motorsport teammate Will Brown.

Feeney and Andre Heimgartner made an even launch off the front row, with the Triple Eight driver holding the advantage by virtue of the inside line that came with his pole position.

All up, it was a rather clean run through Turn 1 but trouble kicked off by the time the field reached Turn 7, with Matt Payne and Declan Fraser spearing off together, moments before Jack Le Brocq was spun following contact with Jack Smith.

Payne and Fraser both headed straight for the pitlane, the latter going six laps down with a steering arm change required.

Race 3 polesitter Le Brocq was able to soldier on, albeit buried at the back of the pack, while Smith was forced to retire from the race with radiator damage.

At the front, Feeney immediately established a buffer to the tune of 1.2s as Heimgartner behind came under pressure.

The Brad Jones Racing driver held firm and soon enough it was fellow Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen at the head of a train of cars.

Van Gisbergen was able to keep Brown behind though as James Golding and Kostecki became engaged in a rugged tussle, the championship leader looking to regain ground after losing two spots on the first lap.

Kostecki eventually forced his way by and from there the pointy end of the field stabilised until the pitstop sequence.

Scott Pye was the first to pull the trigger on a compulsory tyre stop on Lap 8, helping him to undercut his way forward.

Brown then pitted the very next lap from fourth position.

Heimgartner and Kostecki both came to the lane on Lap 18, with the BJR Camaro getting out just ahead of Brown.

Feeney then covered and retained the net lead with relative ease, although Heimgartner did get as close as 0.15s at one stage.

As is often the case, van Gisbergen bucked the trend, staying out until Lap 25.

A rapid pitstop got van Gisbergen out right on Heimgartner’s rear bumper and he was able to make it a Triple Eight one-two with a Turn 5 pass on Lap 27.

Right behind there was a switch between the Erebus teammates as Kostecki mimicked van Gisbergen’s move to grab fourth from Brown.

Van Gisbergen edged closer to Feeney but never enough to put the result in doubt, the final margin being 1.4763s.

Heimgartner, Kostecki and Brown stayed third through fifth to end as Golding, Macauley Jones, Bryce Fullwood and Pye made it an all-Camaro top nine.

Nick Percat was the lead Ford across the line in 10th but was relegated to 19th by virtue of a 15-second penalty for spinning David Reynolds at Turn 6.

Thomas Randle instead was classified 10th.

Among the hard chargers from the rear of the grid were Cam Waters and Chaz Mostert, who recovered to 12th and 13th.

Reynolds finished 22nd, just ahead of Payne, while Davison slipped from top 10 contention to be three laps down after a late visit to the pits caused by steering damage.

Race 3 will start at 3:25pm local time (3:55pm AEST).

Results: Race 2, 2023 Darwin Triple Crown