Team TRTPower Rankings: Supercars at the AGP
Supercars is back.
Spicy racing, on-track drama, and a straight forward format saw some great racing from the Supercars on the Australian Grand Prix undercard – here we break it all down.
Don’t forget – this is a double-barrel week of Power Rankings, with the F1 side of the equation to be broken down tomorrow… you won’t want to miss it!
ABOUT THE RANKINGS: The TRT Power Rankings are compiled by your nominations from social media and edited by the TRT editorial team. They’re designed to give a balanced, as fair as possible critical overview of those things that excelled and those things that struggled, at each event. It’s (mostly) a democracy, and what you nominate generates the order, so have your say next event via our social media channels, @theracetorque on Facebook, Twitter and Insta. Look for the call out each evening and get commenting!
HOT
1. Red Bull Ampol Racing/Will Brown/Broc Feeney
- Feeney pole, Feeney/Brown 1-2 race one
- Brown 1st, Feeney 4th race two
- Feeney/Brown 1-2 race three
- Brown/Feeney 2-3 race four
- Brown the Larry Perkins Trophy winner
It wasn’t exactly a walk in the park, they raced in close quarters, and outside of a small slip in race two for Feeney, they were almost perfect when others absolutely were not.
Very ominous for the competition from a team that hasn’t suffered an SvG hangover.
2. Nick Percat
6th, 6th, 9th and a big win, fourth in the points after two events, Matt Stone Racing back in victory lane, and also holding down fourth in the pit lane order. A highlight was that battle with the Red Bulls en route to victory, although he was unable to drive it back to victory lane, where he arrived on foot. Percat’s WAU nightmare is a distant memory – it turns out he can absolutely still drive like it’s 2020. A statement result, and quotable statement post-race:
“Last 18 months, hated every second of that mob (WAU). So, honestly, the moment I walked into MSR, I knew this is where I needed to be.”
3. Race Format
It just worked, didn’t it? Supercars have always relied on pit stops to add some spice to proceedings in an attempt to mix the running order via mistakes in the pits or varied strategy. But straight races with the application of the KISS principle was a breath of fresh air. The cars raced well and were tightly packed, and there was a sense of urgency from the competitors. Food for thought…
4. The Racing
Supercars is back! Across the board, there was a solid level of spice and aggression over the weekend in all four of the races.
5. Content of the Year
Big call and made early, but how good was this? Thomas Randle is a true star, well played by the Supercars Media team and for F1 being in on it. Millions of views to date can’t be wrong. Magic.
6. Matt Payne
- 3rd race 1
- 3rd race 2 with a shattered rim.
- Pole race 3, shunted from the lead.
- Racing for the lead in the finale until punted by Mostert.
If he were the English Cricket team, those latter two would be moral victories.
Matt Payne is here and is going to be a factor.
7. Pizza Hut has done it again!
First Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, now Spongebob Squarepants, with the yellow hues (alone) propelling Macca Jones to the top of the pops in opening practice. Liveries are an excellent source of making a splash, and this absolutely was a big one.
8. Youngest Ever Podium
Good stats.
9. Chaz Mostert
4th, 17th, 3rd, and 5th from pole – looked solid and was in the mix throughout.
10. Team 18
Flashes of form – Mark Winterbottom second in race two, David Reynolds fourth in race three to place fifth in the points going to NZ.
FURTHER HOTS
Cameron Waters
Pole race 2, 5th, 7th, DNF and 7th in the races. In the mix without the ultimate results.
The Thursday Crowd
We’ll pop this in the Supercars Power Rankings, because there were no F1, F2 or F3 cars on track. The estimated 65,030 was significantly up on last year’s 60,832, and it genuinely felt it on the ground.
The Cooldown Room was Cool
There was multiple positive feedback from the fans that utilising the F1 cooldown room before the podium was a hit.
Erebus on the Rebound (Until Sunday)
Jack Le Brocq – 10th, 8th, 5th, DNF
Todd Hazelwood – 9th, 9th, 6th, 15th
Consistent when others weren’t, but more has to come from the defending champs.
Carrera Cup/Harri Jones, Marcos Flack
Harri smashed them in races one and two, and was first in the overall honours, with Dale Wood winning the start and not relinquishing it in the finale. However, a post-race 5sec for Wood saw Marcos Flack elevated to his maiden win. Spicy racing with the occasional hiccup, as per standard AGP practice. It was also a good show for the category as the only accessible support for the fans trackside.
Ryan Wood
Baby, baby steps, but results of 12th and 10th in races two and three show potential.
Garth Tander
Stepped up in commentary, and the fans loved it.
WHAT
It’s not normally this leafy at the AGP…
The program bowled a wide on poor AVL…
NOT
1. Fords Crashing into Fords
The Blue Oval was set to strike back in race three, however, Matt Payne and Cameron Waters entangled, and found themselves in the fence, paving the way to another Red Bull Ampol Chevrolet one-two. Ultimately, Chaz Mostert picked up the pieces for Ford in third, in a case of what should have been…
But wait, there’s more! The two leading Fords of Mostert and Payne managed to come into contact race four whilst leading, with Mostert taking the blame, gifting a one-two-three to Chevrolet.
The technical parity seems pretty good, but the sporting parity needs some blue coconuts banged together away from the race track.
2. Brad Jones Racing
The four cars filled out positions 18 through 21 on Saturday, while Sunday wasn’t a lot better, with results 17th through 20th. Ugh.
A lowlight may have been when Jaxon Evans wound up punted into the fence in race one, but soldered on to the finish with his bucket of bolts scraping the tarmac.
Ugly weekend results across the board read:
- Bryce Fullwood – 17th, 15th, 21st, 20th
- Andre Heimgartner – 18th, 14th, 20th, 17th
- Macauley Jones – 20th, 21st, 19th, 19th
- Jaxon Evans – 24th, 18th, 18th, 18th
3. The Pit Lane Situation
Not only were the Supercars demoted to the backlots from their previous pit lane home, which was taken up by F2, as if to rub their faces in it, F2 didn’t use their own pit lane for the races, preferring to utilise the main lane in front of the F1 garages.
To make matters worse, from the middle of the temporary garage structures to the middle of the transporter parking, which was on the outside of turn 12, it was over a 400m walk.
While some people probably preferred the lack of fans in the paddock, big picture, it was a bad deal for the sport overall.
Meanwhile, up the street at Carrera Cup, not only were the trucks parked next to the garages, but fans could walk freely through the paddock. Chalk that up as a win for the little guys.
4. Dick Johnson Racing, Anton De Pasquale
Continue to be consistently inconsistent.
Steering damage sidelined De Pasqaule on the opening lap of race two and a non-start in the finale. Horrible for points, with him heading to round three in 21st.
Anton De Pasquale: 7th, DNF, 16th, DNS
Will Davison: 14th, 5th, 14th, 6th
5. Thomas Randle (Until Sunday)
Caught up in more strife than Ned Kelly, results of 22nd, 23rd, 22nd, rebounded with 4th on Sunday.
6. Pole Award
If any publicity is good publicity, Boost Mobile is on the biggest winner of all time, with the ongoing saga continuing to roll out. We’re sure the sport would wish there were other things the universe could talk about…
7. Sami Meguetounif
It’s unfortunate that an F3 driver registered a NOT in the Supercars Power Rankings, but here we are. His shunt at the end of Friday Qualifying saw the Supercars’ second race start 15 minutes late, which resulted in two laps being lopped off their tally. The class also opted to ditch podium celebrations when faced with a hard out for F1 second practice.
8. Zak Brown missed the Zoom Call on that one…
9. Porsche Corner One Race 3
Out of a massive first corner squeeze, Fabian Coulthard found himself broadside across the circuit, where he was clouted again by an unfortunately and unluckily placed Rodney Jane. Messy and expensive.
10. Various Biffos
OTHER NOTS
Thursday Race Start
Twas a smidge anti-climactic, wasn’t it?
This…?
Bogged As
When Marco Giltrap was punted into the turn six bunker in Carrera Cup qualifying, the recovery was delayed somewhat by the crane getting repeatedly bogged en route to the incident. Suboptimal.
SOCIALS
#SALTYCAM
Gunther
Agreed
Is this a meme?
MEME
With the sharing of video from the GP still a no-no for the support races, the application of memes proved vital in the accurate retelling of on-track action…
