Supercars championship leader Brown powers to Taupō win

Championship leader Will Brown overhauled Australian team-mate Broc Feeney in a tense battle to win the second and final race of the Australian Supercars round in Taupō.

Brown drove aggressively over the closing stages of race two at Taupō International Motorsport Park on Sunday to notch his third win out of eight races this season and open up a 71 point lead atop the standings through three rounds.

Brown powered past Feeney with nine laps remaining to claim the lead, following a nail-biting battle that saw the two Red Bull Ampol Camaros run side-by-side for several laps.

Behind them, Australian Shell V-Power Ford drive Anton De Pasquale finished a distant third to claim the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy – named after the late New Zealand driver – awarded to the driver who accumulates the most points across the weekend.

De Pasquale hung onto the trophy despite a spirited charge from Saturday’s race one winner, New Zealand’s Andre Heimgartner in his R&J Batteries Chevrolet.

Brown said he enjoyed the tense nature of his duel with Feeney over the closing stages of the 60-lap race.

“I might have touched him once, but I was trying not to, but it was hard to resist when you’re in a battle like that. Great, great fun. That’s the best race of my life,” Brown said.

“It was awesome racing between the team there, that’s what it’s all about. I hope everyone out there in New Zealand loved that, but God, I was buggered at the end of that. I was trying everything to get around him and I locked the rears and just got around.”

Earlier, New Zealand pole-sitter Matt Payne won the race to turn one in his Penrite Ford over Feeney.

However, Payne began to hit tyre trouble and was passed by Feeney on lap 11.

Taupo’s first-ever staging of a championship round attracted attendance figures of 67,411 across three days – comprising Friday’s practice session and two races over the weekend, both of which were sold out.

The championship will resume in Perth in mid-May.