It’s been a while between drinks for me, so writing a weekend review again feels odd to say the least. Hidden Valley Raceway produced some on track action although most of the intrigue for this weekends racing was in team strategy and pitstops. The undercut proved to be extremely powerful for the weekend races as well as an elongated overcut on the Friday Sprint Race. The Friday afternoon sprint race produced the most chaotic racing of the weekend as drivers usually forget the art of setting up overtakes with Saturday and Sunday races being won within the strategy and pitstops. Sunday did have two super subs stepping in to race with mixed fortunes with Hazlewood showing why he’s still the best co-driver around currently and Winterbottom getting some valuable mileage with the enduros getting ever closer. 

Good 

Penrite Power

Penrite Racing had fast cars all weekend long and capitalised to nearly full effect taking a race win on Saturday, a double podium on Friday and another podium plus top 10 result on Sunday. This weekend sees Penrite head into Townsville with the Teams Championship lead and the all-important pit lane priority. Payne maximised his speed advantage this weekend to bring the championship lead down to 15 points being within the Top 4 all weekend long and Allen picked up his second career win along with a strong overall weekend showing. 

Waters Resurgence 

Waters finally broke multiple droughts for himself and the Tickford team this weekend being able to secure two pole positions, a win and another two trips to the podium for the round resulting in a Triple Crown win for himself. This Darwin trip makes good of Waters season form and places him in good stead heading into the closing stages of the Sprint Cup allowing him an outside chance to win it being that he’s now just under 200 points from Feeney in the lead. As Waters himself said after Friday this will be a weight off his shoulders and hopefully for the sake of Tickford is a sign of things to come and not a flash in the pan. 

Bad 

Erebus Again Again 

It’s very difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel for Erebus at this moment in time as Murray so far hasn’t taken the leap that I personally expected to see this year and Stewart is still in his rookie season. Erebus may have to pray for some enduro madness to achieve a result worth celebrating instead of any small wins they may get this season with their drivers or package. Their cars same to BRT did look very good so it does deserve some praise and admiration. 

BRT 

BRT had no race nor qualifying pace this weekend and struggled significantly to make their way through the field which shows as a team they still have quite a bit of growing to do despite their improved performances this season. Cameron will need to develop his race craft further if he wants his results to improve as this weekend highlighted some of his deficiencies both defensive driving and making passes on other drivers. Their cars did look really good though for the Darwin trip so kudos where it’s due.     

Ugly 

Feeney 

Feeney had a pretty average weekend by his lofty standards, he was well off the pace for the majority of the weekend and was probably somewhat fortunate to not lose the championship lead at the conclusion of this weekend. His lead has been reduced from 90 Points to only 15 Points going into Townsville, he cannot afford another weekend similar to Darwin going forward if he wants to retain the championship lead especially considering Paynes current form. 

Cool Suit/Drink Problems

This issue rears its ugly head again this year and at one of the worst possible tracks for this to happen to with Kostecki and Randle facing issues with their Drinks and Cool Suits respectively which directly and possibly indirectly led to both drivers’ omissions from Sunday. Supercars will want to get even tighter on the rules surround cool suit/drink failures before we see a driver suffer a serious health problem from that type of failure. 

Walkinshaw 

Multiple mechanical failures this weekend costing Wood and Mostert in the Saturday and Sunday races respectively hindered their weekend further which was already mired with overall mediocrity despite a good Saturday recovery drive from Mostert. Walkinshaw will want to remove these gremlins before they cost them a chance at silverware like it did at Bathurst last year and has cost them earlier in the season at Christchurch.  

Before concluding I did want to mention De Pasquale’s Sunday win, this ends the wait for the Chevy brand although is leading into a trend of De Pasquale or bust for the manufacturer. Another thing to quickly mention is how good all the cars looked in their indigenous/mauri designs for this weekend I absolutely love these one-off liveries although my bank account doesn’t when the models get released. Supercars heads over to Townsville from the 10^th to 12^th of July with only three more rounds left in the Sprint Cup before Enduros. 

The start of the New Zealand double header has been odd and I’m not really sure whether I can dub this weekend as the Taupo Super 440 given Race 10 got postponed. This has left me with a limited amount of Supercars action to comment on, majority of the drivers had either a mixed bag weekend or nothing burger weekend to sum up this article in a sentence if you don’t want to go and read it. Taupo as per, provided some good quality racing across a heavily shortened weekend, but the weather killed the true potential unfortunately.  

The Good 

The Will Brown 

He’s remembered how to qualify, and he has left his destructive Melbourne form behind him. Will Brown showed this weekend that when he qualifies well, he tends to maximise his position with good results, he took out a 2^nd and 4^th from this weekend and benefitted from being able to focus on the podium places rather than carving up the field either figuratively or literally. Brown can take great confidence out of this weekend and heading into the uncharted territory of Christchurch, this is confidence which will be sorely needed.  

Terrific Toyota Taupo Special

Toyota have their first win in the Supercars category and who better to deliver it than Ryan Wood on home turf, given Wood’s mechanical misfortune from last year this will be a beyond pleasing result and the perfect place to deliver. Walkinshaw showed that their partnership with Toyota will be a fruitful one for both parties given how quickly they’ve been able to propel themselves to 2^nd in the Constructors Championship. Another bonus from this weekend is Toyota now have two marquee drivers for their outfit in Mostert and now Wood particularly significant given GM’s struggles in this category, it bodes well for Toyota going forward that this won’t be a massive problem. The only real downside for Toyota is getting BJR going in a positive direction as they are currently struggling beyond belief outside of Heimgartner. 

Supercars

Supercars deserve props for how they’ve handled this situation. They were decisive and forthcoming with their decision making in regard to this weekend with Tropical Cyclone Vaianu coming into the path of the Taupo track. Supercars made the correct choice, it was in the best interest of both the teams and fans safety to cancel Sunday’s proceedings as they very easily could’ve just chosen the alternative cause money go brrrrr. 

I also want to again gush over the commentary it was fantastic this weekend and Richard Craill looks to be another successful addition for the Supercars broadcast. 

The Bad

Randle 

Randle unlike many of his other competitors hasn’t really suffered from too much bad luck, he’s just performed poorly that’s it, particularly this weekend. Only good thing for him this weekend was his livery change otherwise he was very poor both in qualifying and race which sums up his season well to this point in time. Randle has not looked even close to claiming a podium let alone a victory, hell he’s struggled to get top 10 results so far, he will want to change this form ASAP before the outside noise gets too loud.  

Cameron 

Aaron Cameron had another week to forget, he was a bit unfortunate in Race 8 with the contact and being spun around which ruined his race before it could ever get going. However, Race 9 he was just off the pace and couldn’t really move himself through the pack which is another learning experience for both him and the team. The BRT cars definitely have the pace, which was proven by Goulding this weekend, Cameron just couldn’t put together a solid outing. Fortunately, in Cameron’s case he is still quite young into his Supercars career and under considerably less pressure especially compared to other drivers currently in the category. 

The Ugly 

Taupo’s Tropical Cyclone

As mentioned earlier in the article Tropical Cyclone Vaianu ruined the weekend by existing and my article so it’s a double whammy for me since I only do round reviews instead of race by race. Fortunately, we were at least able to get two days of action so in the grand scheme of things it was very limited damage to the season. It also makes the debut of Christchurch to Supercars to be a massive one since Race 10 is being moved to next week which will make it a great weekend. On a serious note, hopefully the potential damage it may cause is minimal to the area and that those already effected by it recover from the damages quickly. 

Erebus Motorsport 

Another race week another bout of depression for Erebus, again had a car caught up in an accident they had no ability to avoid and again had very little race pace. Both drivers are having major early season struggles in Jobe Stewart this was expected, in Cooper Murray for me at least it was not. Erebus may be a force to be reckoned with in the years to come but going off the first three rounds, they and their fans will have to go through a massive amount of pain first before they get to the good times. 

GM

GM have had a torrid time as a manufacturer this weekend, could only scrape the edges of the top 10 in both Race 8 and 9, with their cars being unable to mount a serious challenge for podium places. GM are screaming for a strong contending team and at the moment have to settle for teams that are still building into something greater. 

Next weekend should be a great one given we’re getting a bonus Friday race to debut Christchurch which is very exciting and Supercars can take some positive momentum into this double header. 

Ryan Wood will head into Christchurch with a 17 Point lead in the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy over Broc Feeney.  

The Melbourne GP brings out the greatest level of entertainment within Supercars drivers and it’s probably the best advertisement for the category in peak condition and this edition was no different, there was great driving, lots of bumping and grafting, lots of safety cars and crashes. As a quick side note poor Zach Bates, he’s had an induction from hell for his Supercars career found himself attracting the contact of other cars at an alarming rate. 

Now let’s get into the meat of the article, starting with the good.

The Good

Kostecki 

The newly minted ‘Bogeyman’ was imperious this weekend taking 3 out of 4 race wins and coming in second in the only race he didn’t win where he had a very realistic shot at winning. He looks every bit the man who won the 2023 Championship and danger signs are popping up right now for the competition. Nothing more needs to be said the results speak for themselves. 

Waters

Another quietly good weekend for Waters with results of 6^th, 4^th, 3^rd and 6^th resulting in his second place in both the Drivers Championship and Larry Perkins Trophy. Consistency has been the name of the game for Waters season so far, he’s avoided unnecessary fights and maximised what his car has given him for each given race despite not showing blistering pace. Further continuing to put my pre-season prediction of him and Tickford in the bin where it clearly belongs at this point. 

Gray

Rylan Gray stayed out of the majority of the action this week and only involved in a few incidents which was quite impressive considering he spent the weekend being in the danger zone 24/7, he finished every race and recorded a PB 14^th finish in Race 7. Good job Gray you did basically everything which could’ve been asked of you this weekend the only thing which would’ve made it better would’ve been a top 10 finish, this is good progress especially considering other rookies couldn’t achieve the same feats he accomplished this weekend.   

Entertainment Factor

This is perfect, I am loving the animosity within the field the Feeney vs Wood rivalry, Triple Eight vs Walkinshaw, Cameron vs Kostecki there is so much for fans to sink their teeth into and get invested in. There is great momentum which has now been built over the first two rounds for Supercars in terms of on and off-track action we’ve got team principals trading blows through various media platforms, drivers actually disliking one another openly and this has generated greater interest in the category. The commentating was great this weekend I am really enjoying the dynamic between Tander and Neylon they bounce off each other really well and the graphics worked outside of a couple of instances which is much better than what was served up Round 1. Most importantly this weekend was Supercars at its peak chaotic hard racing with drivers only looking out for number one I loved every second of it as a spectator removing any team biases I have. 

Walkinshaw TRG Racing

Despite a couple of hiccups across the weekend for Walkinshaw TRG Racing, Wood got Toyota’s first podium finish in Supercars and Mostert finished 6^th in the Larry Perkins Trophy. This has been a good bounce back from the woes of opening round, the car definitely isn’t the finished article and won’t be in competition for the Drivers Championship come end of season. However, there is a little more light at the end of the tunnel compared to last week hopefully for Toyota they can have a strong showing across the New Zealand double header. 

Allen’s Race Pace

Kai Allen was bruised and battered nearly all weekend by others yet somehow each time he managed to replicate Kratos’ rise from hell to give himself a great result. He climbed 6 places from his qualifying in Race 4 which was especially impressive considering he was pointing the wrong way at Turn 3 on the first lap. He then did it all again in Race 5 claiming 8 places where he again found himself pointing the wrong way this time at Turn 14 on lap 10 and claimed 9 places in Race 6 which he for once didn’t find himself pointing the wrong way in at any point in time. Although he had a quiet Race 7 wherein, he did not gain a single position that does not diminish the close to dominating speed in races Allen had across the weekend exciting times are on the horizon for Allen. 

Le Brocq

Another driver who had a sneakily solid weekend kept himself mostly out of trouble outside of meeting Will Brown on track prior to Race 7 and became another one of Brown’s victims for the weekend. Le Brocq had both solid qualifying and race pace which will enthuse Matt Stone Racing going forward if it can be found more regularly. This weekend’s results promote him to current number 2 GM driver with him sitting 6^th in the Drivers Championship which is a surprise to be sure but a welcome one.   

The Bad 

The Stewards

Some dodgy officiating at times from the stewards this race weekend there were multiple occasions in which some drivers got away scot-free, Will Brown should’ve had two in Race 6 for forcing both Le Broc and Murray wide at Turn 11 but didn’t for some reason and for taking Cameron out at Turn 4 on lap 11. Not sure how Brown avoided a penalty for those since both had some similarities to the Sydney Motorsport Park penalty he picked up last week (which I thought was unfair given the conditions) the stewards did come out and say both incidents were fine for various reasons. Going 3 wide into Turn 11 with Murray having no way of knowing the Brown was on the inside of Le Brocq and Cameron saying that he didn’t see Brown there, in my opinion both of these reasons are flimsy at best. However, I do believe that many of us will see these incidents differently some may accept the stewards reasoning and some won’t. 

Feeney also should’ve been penalised for the Cameron incident Race 5 but wasn’t oddly enough since he did end up helping cause that accident by trying to readdress after turning Cameron. It’s a similar incident to 2016 Bathurst where Whincup’s readdress attempt resulted in McLaughlin and Tander both being in the fence and their days done. However, I will give a little more leniency given Cameron decided to give into the goblin and give Feeney a side swipe for his troubles which also aided in him and Allen ending up in the fence. 

Now I know for the Triple Eight supporters this may seem like I’m bashing your team, I’m not I’m going after the stewards for ignoring causes for accidents and by happenstance the two main instances of this happening were with both Triple Eight drivers. 

The Timeslot

I know that Supercars is a support category for the F1 at this event however, it doesn’t mean that I’m not going to complain about the timeslots the Supercars run in. It does not suit the main audience of Supercars I’d be willing to bet most of us were working when all of practice and first two qualifying sessions were on and the remaining two qualifying sessions were on before 9am on a Saturday. This is not conducive of a positive Supercars experience in its totality but as a wise man once said, “it is what it is”. 

Erebus Again

Erebus had a mixture of bad luck and poor pace this weekend with Murray recording a season best result of 10^th in Race 4 this being the only positive whatsoever. Stewart for the most part spent the weekend relatively off the pace and continually involved in midpack squabbles which he generally found himself coming off second best in. Murray on the other hand was a personal punching bag for the Red Bull cars, Brown in particular being obsessed with putting Murray in the gravel at Turn 11 this weekend doing it twice in back-to-back races then being flattened by a Feeney brainfart in Race 7. This was particularly painful for Erebus since Murray for the first time this season looked somewhat likely to pick up some decent results instead received a whole lot of pain and disappointment. At least their cars looked really good though. 

The Ugly

Feeney’s Race 7 360˚

Why just why, that spin was such a dumb thing to attempt in the middle of the track not only ruined his own race it put two other drivers out of commission for the race. For such a skilled and adept driver to try and pull off a flick spin whilst still spinning was inconceivably stupid, I sit here writing this article nearly 12 hours after the race still bamboozled by this decision. Now does he deserve all the personal attacks coming his way online NO, but it doesn’t mean that the decision itself cannot be critiqued because it was very much stupid. Thankfully both he and all others involved are in-fact ok and no injuries have been reported from the crash thus far, that’s the only positive. 

Brown Being an Avengers Level Threat

Will Brown spent Races 4, 5 and 6 either picking up penalties or driving into others in what I can only describe as his attempt to collect the infinity stones (penalties or opposing cars can’t tell at this point). If there was an incident on track during this period, you would usually find him at either the centre or involved in it there wasn’t much he didn’t hit this weekend. Given the immense outside and potentially inside pressure on Brown this was not a good weekend outside of a 2^nd place finish in Race 7, this weekend was miserable for himself and anyone who had the general misfortune of sharing the track with him. 

BRT’s Race Luck

Aaron Cameron had a depressing weekend littered with bad luck he was involved with at least one entanglement per race and got a flat tire somehow in Race 7 which just compounded the rotten luck he found. Golding’s weekend wasn’t much better outside of a 5^th in Race 7 where he too got involved in many entanglements which he often came out second best and with a ruined race. The positive for Blanchard Racing Team is they proved the pace at Sydney wasn’t a fluke however, will be left wondering which witch they pissed off during the week to get all the chaos they did this weekend. Hopefully the New Zealand venture will be more fruitful for them results wise as their pace deserves its just reward.  

Now it’s time to sign off, Supercars will be back in action in Taupo 10^th-12^th of April so it will be a relatively long wait time for my next Supercars article unless some absolute bombshell drops in this period and a long wait for some high quality Supercars entertainment. 

Payne’s Pain

Payne found himself wrong place wrong time in back-to-back which dropped him down into 4^th in the Drivers Championship despite having a quick car around Melbourne and will be rueing the dropped points. Of the two separate incidents in question, he was at fault for neither of them Race 6 Golding put him into the wall opening lap ruined both their races and Race 7 he got a puncture from either flat spotting it during breaking in an overtake for 3^rd or he ran over debris on the road couldn’t entirely tell.