Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!
On the weekend of July 11 – 13 was round 7 of the 2025 Supercars Championship, the NTI Townsville 500.
The Townsville street circuit was first opened in 2009 for the Townsville 400, a Supercars championship event. Lee Holdsworth and Garth Tander scored the first 2 pole positions back in 2009. Jamie Whincup and James Courtney shared the wins.
Jamie Whincup holds the record of most wins at Townsville with a total of 12. He also holds the most podiums record of 23. Shane Van Gisbergen is second with 8 wins.
This year was the 19th occasion that the Supercars have raced on the streets of Townsville and the venue didn’t let anyone down with perfect weather.
In the pre-race sessions:
- Ryan Wood was fastest in Practice 1
- Thomas Randle was fastest in Practice 2
- Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Qualifying
In Race 20 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position with Cameron Waters alongside him.
At the start of the race Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turns 1 and 2 for the first of 35 laps. He was followed by Cameron Waters, Will Davison and Anton de Pasquale.
Jaxson Evans received damage to the front right corner of his car #12 from contact with David Reynolds. They both dropped down to 22nd and 24th place respectively.
A few laps into the race James Courtney made contact with Aaron Cameron dropping James Courtney back to 16th and Aaron Cameron to 23rd place.
The Red Bull Ampol Racing drivers Broc Feeney and Will Brown qualified 14th and 20th on the grid. They made easy work of moving up to 10th and 14th place.
Brodie Kostecki still had the lead but was shadowed by Cameron Waters in second place.
Will Davison was passed by Anton de Pasquale and then by Matt Payne dropping him back to 5th place.
The first car to pit was Ryan Wood on lap 10 from 23rd place and when he came back out he was still in 23rd place.
Both Broc Feeney and Will Brown were still making gains and in 9th and 11th place.
Brodie Kostecki maintained control and by the middle of the race had increased his lead to 3.171 seconds over Cameron Waters.
With 11 laps remaining, the leading 3 cars of Brodie Kostecki, Cameron Waters and Anton de Pasquale finally took their mandatory pit stops.
On return to the track, the 3 drivers still held the lead and it was a mad dash to the finish line. Cameron Waters and Anton de Pasquale couldn’t make any gains on the super-fast Brodie Kostecki and he flew across the finish line with 3.7 second lead.
Race 20 Results:
1st Brodie Kostecki – Shell V-Power Racing Team
2nd Cameron Waters – Tickford Racing
3rd Anton de Pasquale – Team 18
In Race 21 David Reynolds started on pole position with Matt Payne alongside him.
Matt Payne got the jump off the start line and led into turns 1 and 2 for the first of 70 laps.
Exiting turn 3 James Golding, Thomas Randle, Cameron Waters and Jaxson Evans all made contact and cars were spinning out of control everywhere. Cars behind them had to take evasive action. When the dust settled James Golding was stranded out in the middle of the track and the safety car had to be deployed. Thomas Randle, Ryan Wood and Cameron Waters had all dropped to the back of the field. Later, the officials declared it was a racing incident and no penalties were issued.
The restart was on lap 6 with Matt Payne still in control of the race, followed by David Reynolds and Jack le Brocq. Soon after, Broc Feeney passed Jack le Brocq to take 3rd place.
The first car to pit was Thomas Randle from 22nd place on lap 8. His car needed repair work done after being involved in the lap 1 pile up.
Brodie Kostecki was moving up and passed James Courtney for 5th place.
By lap 10 Thomas Randle was still in the pits and the crew declared that a shock absorber was broken. Once the repair was completed he rejoined the race but was way behind.
Will Davison had his rear guard smashed and pushed against the tyre by Will Brown making an aggressive pass. Davison had to pit early. After official investigation Will Brown was later issued a 5 second time penalty for his actions.
On lap 12 James Courtney’s engine failed and the safety car was deployed once again. Everyone pitted to take advantage of yellow flag. Broc Feeney did a really quick stop of 4 seconds which gave him track position.
The restart was on lap 18. Broc Feeney was in the lead followed by Matt Payne and David Reynolds.
By the middle of the race Broc Feeney had a 1.163 second lead over Matt Payne. Brodie Kostecki was 0.926 seconds adrift in third place. Chaz Mostert was 4th, up an amazing 13 places after starting 17th on the grid.
As the race continued Chaz Mostert still had more to offer. Towards the end of the race he worked his way up to 2nd place. Broc Feeney was driving faultlessly and increased his lead to 5.557 seconds. Matt Payne was still managing to hold 3rd place.
In the final laps the top 5 drivers were quite spread out giving them clean air and space to reach top speeds. However, Broc Feeney was flying and it seemed no one was able to catch him. In fact he gained even more lead over the others.
Broc Feeny crossed the finish line 6.429 seconds ahead of Chaz Mostert to earn his 21st career win. Matt Payne came in 3rd 1.963 seconds later. Will Brown led the rest of the pack across the line 13+ seconds later.
It was another spectacular finish for Feeney.
Race 21 Results:
1st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
3rd Matt Payne – Grove Racing
In Race 22 Broc Feeney started on pole position with Matt Payne alongside him on the front row of the grid.
Broc Feeney got the jump off the start line leading for the first of 70 laps.
Anton de Pasquale went up to second place.
On lap 3 Will Brown clocked the fastest lap of the race so far, 115.088 seconds.
On the next lap Ryan Wood outdid him recording a 114.821 second lap time.
On lap 12 the front runners were still close together. Matt Payne found the space and regained his former 2nd position from Anton de Pasquale.
The first car to pit was Cameron Waters from 4th place on lap 15. Jack le Brocq pitted on the same lap.
Will Brown got up the inside of Anton de Pasquale for third place around lap 20. He was 1.6 seconds behind Matt Payne and Broc Feeney was 2.9 seconds ahead of him.
Jack Le Brocq then recorded the fastest lap of the race 114.621 seconds.
In the middle of the race Cameron Waters had a 1.5 second lead over Broc Feeney. However, Cameron Waters was still yet to pit so it wouldn’t be long before Feeney resumed the lead. Will Brown was 2.1 seconds back, followed by Anton de Pasquale.
The top 6 cars waited till the last part of the race to take their pit stops. Once back on the track, Broc Feeney was leading over Will Brown by 1.5 seconds. Cameron Waters was following in 3rd place.
Once again Chaz Mostert was moving up through the pack and now in 4th place. It didn’t take him too long to pass Cameron Waters in 3rd.
Meanwhile, the two Red Bull Ampol Racing drivers Broc Feeney and Will Brown were in the lead and breaking away from the pack. They created a huge lead and it seemed no one could keep up. In fact, Will Brown seemed to be having trouble keeping up with Broc Feeney.
Feeney crossed the finish line with a lead of 3.019 seconds over Will Brown. Nearly 10 seconds later Chaz Mostert who had kept ahead of Cam Waters, crossed the line to take 3rd place.
It was an incredible finish for the weekend.
Race 22 Results:
1st Broc Feeney – Red Bull Ampol Racing
2nd Will Brown – Red Bull Ampol Racing
3rd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
Broc Feeney has extended his championship lead to 220 points over Will Brown.
Red Bull Ampol Racing still have command of the Teams Championship by 830 points over Grove Racing.
The next event will be the Century Batteries Ipswich Super 440 on August 8 – 10 2025.
I’m looking forward to it already and hope you will join me.
Till then, Keep Revving!