Rookie Broc Feeney has scored his maiden Repco Supercars Championship victory to provide the Holden brand a winning send off in Adelaide.
The 20-year-old withstood a sustained challenge from Mobil 1 Optus Racing’s Chaz Mostert to become the second youngest ever winner in Supercars history.
Teammate and champion-elect Shane van Gisbergen experienced another torrid day as a late-race penalty for a safety car infringement dropped the Kiwi out of the podium places to seventh.
Leading the Ford charge was polesitter Anton De Pasquale in third but it was a race full of mistakes for Shell V-Power Racing Team’s two drivers as Will Davison went off track twice and his younger teammate ran wide under pressure from van Gisbergen.
It was a long way from the start when the duo ran 1-2 ahead of van Gisbergen, Feeney and Cam Waters after the Monster Energy Racing Ford Mustang went down the inside of Chaz Mostert at Turn 9.
Feeney was first of the leaders to pit as on lap 18 Turn 8 claimed another victim as the TRADIE Mustang of Jake Kostecki hit the outside wall leading to a flurry of stops where Davison and Feeney jumped De Pasquale.
Taking advantage of Davison mistake at Turn 9, Feeney took the lead and held this until the end.
The race was again neutralised when Bryce Fullwood found the Turn 8 wall in the Middy’s Electrical Racing ZB Commodore leading to a mass of pit stops, with van Gisbergen in the uncustomary position of needing to stack behind Feeney.
Davison’s day became worse when he spun while defending from Brodie Kostecki, with James Courtney also involved.
Waters was battling De Pasquale for the final step on the podium when the Monster Energy racing Ford Mustang was sent wide allowing van Gisbergen through.
However, van Gisbergen’s penalty was confirmed and he dropped out of the battle after he had taken third from De Pasquale.
In the end, Feeney took a 0.9s victory from Mostert, De Pasquale, Waters, the R&J Batteries Brad Jones Racing Holden of Andre Heimgartner, Will Brown for Boost Mobile Racing by Erebus, van Gisbergen, Lee Holdsworth on his retirement for Penrite Racing and James Golding in the Subway PremiAir Racing entry.
The Repco Supercars Championship now heads into a new era of Gen3 in 2023, kicking off in Newcastle on March 10-12.