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. 

This weekend’s racing at Sydney Motorsport Park was absolutely phenomenal, every race provided their money’s worth for entertainment and was well worth the off-season wait. It’s been a fantastic way to get the season started especially considering the turmoil coming into due Crompton and Skaife’s sacking and the whirlwind it picked up. 

Both Chevy and Ford had strong showings from their homologation teams this weekend with both picking up wins across the weekend and providing their respective fanbases with hope for the season ahead. Toyota however, will want to look away from this weekend it has not been good for them nor kind worst possible start they could’ve had. 

To start the review of Sydney Motorsport Park Race Weekend I’ll start with the good, then move into the bad and finish off with the ugly with me picking what I believe to be the most relevant points from the weekend it’s pretty straight forward, so let’s get into it. 

The Good 

Broc Feeney 

Coming into the season Feeney had a point to prove and he did just that this weekend claiming two victories in wildly different circumstances. Race One utilised the undercut to perfection to get the edge on the two BRT cars ahead and went to win in comfortable fashion in the sole sprint race of the weekend. Race 3 he battled the elements both inside and outside the car to claim a strong and gruelling victory that was much deserved. He saw off multiple challenges by Kai Allen, changing weather during the mid-section of the race which caused chaos throughout the pack and a malfunctioning cool suit. Although Race Two did not work out in his favour with a 15 second time penalty being applied for an unsafe release during pitstop chaos shuffling him down the order he managed to reel in a 6^th place finish which could’ve been more. 

Matt Payne 

Consistency, Payne did not finish outside of the top 5 all weekend and didn’t put a foot wrong despite not having the race pace others around him often had in spades, yet he continually put himself in the best position to achieve the best possible result. The only thing which would’ve gone better would’ve been a race victory, but this consistency is nearly as good as one and leaves him in a fantastic position going into the Melbourne Grand Prix Sprint Races. 

BRT 

Who had this on their bingo cards coming into this season?

Bloody hell what a round from BRT both cars making the top 10 in each qualifying session of the weekend with a front row lockout for Race One this has been a near perfect start for BRT this season. The major highlight is the double podium coming from Race One despite a lack of frontrunning experience costing them a potential race win, there were also more positive signs across the weekend for the team. There was potential for better Race Two results, but race pace fell away in the second stint for both Cameron and Golding resulting in them sliding down the order despite some strong early pace. Race Three brought bad luck despite again strong signs with Cameron being spun by Kostecki last lap and Golding losing a tire and going multiple laps down. Despite a mixture of mistakes and bad luck post Race One BRT can hang their heads high with their opening round performance, now the challenge for the team is to both learn from their mistakes this weekend and challenge for podiums week in week out. 

Anton De Pasquale 

The leading Chevrolet driver has stamped his authority in the pecking order claiming his first win in two years in Race Two and the first win in nearly three years of Team18. Had luck been on his side in Race Three he could very well be one of the frontrunners in the championship despite still sitting 4^th currently he very well could be a lot closer to the Ford pack ahead. Team18 and De Pasquale will look at this weekend positively despite the end result, things are looking bright for both parties and Chevy fans. 

Cam Waters

Despite not achieving the heights of last year at Sydney Motorsport Park, Waters has come out of this weekend in solid shape the highlight of which being a remarkable charge through the field in Race Three making up 17 places to achieve a fantastic 3^rd considering the situation. This season start has flown under the radar somewhat as he like Payne finished inside the top 10 each race providing a good base for him to launch his campaign from, now the question remains of whether he can keep this momentum going. As a side note to Waters, Tickford are also sitting pretty at the top of the Constructors heading into Melbourne with my prediction regarding their season already aging like milk. 

The Bad 

Toyota 

Toyota’s introduction into the category has been nothing short of a disaster only managing meagre results throughout the vast majority of the weekend and looking like this year will be wasted on learning and development. Don’t let the Sunday Race 3 result distract you from how utterly poor all the Toyota’s had been all weekend prior they found themselves often at the foot of the grid and without the chaos of the weather in Race 3 they would not have had the success they did. Toyota are very clearly across both Walkinshaw TGW and BJR far off the pace if this is a sign of things to come, it’s time to get the danger signs out this season for both teams could get very ugly very quickly. 

Erebus Motorsport

Leaving Sydney sitting at the foot of the Constructors table is not where Erebus want to be, nothing went right for the team every qualifying and race there was nothing within the car which either driver could extract. Add onto this lack of speed car failure for Murray in the season opener and Stewart’s front right tyre deciding it had enough of being with Erebus that it loosened and subsequently failed to operate as a tyre. It will be in the team’s best interest to forget this weekend lest they want nightmares. 

PremiAir Racing

Another Chevrolet team which will want to forget all about this weekend, I found they’ve managed to disappoint me although that may be on me for having greater expectations of this group coming into the season. They spent the majority of the weekend at the back of the grid with the only consolation being a 13^th place finish in Race One and Two by Ojeda and Fraser respectively, they have a lot of things to improve upon heading into Melbourne if they want to put their season back on track. 

The Ugly

Supercars Broadcasting Issues 

I like the new broadcasting team and the graphics package however, half the time the package was not working on screens, there were errors abound and there was not a full race where something did not go massively wrong. If Supercars want people to get around this broadcasting graphics package, they need to present it better there cannot be as many errors next race weekend as there was this weekend. The public are already looking for ways to criticize the broadcast as it is Supercars do not need to give them further ammunition. 

Bizarre Penalty for Brown 

I genuinely do not know how Will Brown picked up a 15 second time penalty for the Lap 34 collision after the race restart, with a slippery track on a restart. I am of the opinion it was more of an unfortunate racing incident on tv vision. To play devils advocate for a second us viewers don’t always get shown the same information the stewards do as unlike them, we’re relying on the broadcasters for that information, so they might’ve seen something that I didn’t. Brown will feel hard done by with this penalty as I believe he was far enough up on Kostecki’s car to make a legitimate pass for the position and due to the conditions, he slid and made slight contact which in turn caused Kostecki to spin De Pasquale into the oncoming Brown. It isn’t a great look for the stewards and could potentially set a dangerous precedent going forward into the season with other incidents in similar conditions with potentially title altering ramifications.