- Chaos erupts just seconds into the Darwin Supercars race
- Two major crashes trigger early safety car deployment
- Broc Feeney keeps his cool and claims vital win
Broc Feeney has extended his lead at the top of the Supercars standings, holding onto pole position to win a crash-filled first race of the Darwin Triple Crown.
The Triple Eight speedster’s third consecutive win opened up his championship gap over teammate Will Brown to 107 points, keeping his cool despite the chaos unfolding behind him on Saturday.
Feeney held off Tickford’s Cam Waters at the opening turn and remained in front until the end.
Waters opted to change all four tyres in his compulsory pit stop, sacrificing time off the track in the hope his fresher tyres would give him a speed boost to haul down Feeney later in the race.
While he closed the gap to 1.7 seconds, it was not enough to haul down the 22-year-old, even with a clutch issue hampering his drive.
‘It was super stressful. I didn’t know how it was going to go,’ he told Fox Sports.
Jaxon Evans crashes his SCT Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro early in the race in Darwin
Fortunately for Evans and spectators, nobody was injured in either of the crashes that brought out the safety car twice
‘But it was awesome fun. Cam chasing me down, it was super hard out there. Hot, stressing, I had lots of stuff going in my head.
‘I bloody love coming to Darwin, so stoked to win here.’
It’s Feeney’s fourth race win at the venue, having won both races in 2024.
It took just one turn for the first big shunt of the race to bring out the safety car.
Wheel contact from James Golding fired Jaxon Evans into the barrier at the exit of turn one at high speed, dislodging his front left wheel and ruling his car out of the rest of the day’s action.
Thankfully, Evans walked away from the incident unscathed, except for a slightly sore foot.
There was more drama straight off the restart.
The grid was pinched together as drivers jostled for position on the 1.1km-long straight; at one point cars were five-wide as braking ahead squeezed the available space on the track.
Red Bull Racing took control once the race resumed after the early crashes that caused chaos
Broc Feeney escaped the carnage to claim victory in his Red Bull Ampol Racing Chevrolet Camaro
Contact amid the cramped conditions sent Jack Le Broq into the wall, losing his front-left wheel, and seconds later a tangle between Nick Percat and Richie Stanaway on turn five left the PremiAir Racing man with heavy damage.
Meanwhile, Ryan Wood’s Ford Mustang lost power and emerged immobile out of the chaos.
Walkinshaw Andretti United later revealed his car had suffered engine failure and was in doubt to start in race 18.
We had to wait until lap 12 for the first green lap of the race.
Off the second restart, Brodie Kostecki bumped past Matt Payne on the inside of turn one to move into third position and was handed a five-second penalty as a result.
Payne eventually finished in third, while Brown managed to close six spots to finish in eighth after failing to make the top 10 earlier for both races.
Hometown hero Bryce Fullwood narrowly missed out on a podium, finishing four seconds behind Payne in fourth.
Feeney will start from pole position again in the second 120km race of the day, which kicks off at 3.40pm (AEST).
