Feeney wins dramatic Gold Coast 500 finale as Walkinshaw team orders and late fuel stops decide Finals eliminations

Feeney's long-awaited homecoming win

Triple Eight Race Engineering's Broc Feeney won the second race of the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 at the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, beating Dick Johnson Racing's Brodie Kostecki by 6.9098 seconds across 85 laps of the 250km contest. Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw TWG Racing, Toyota Supra) finished third, a further 14.0183 seconds adrift, according to Speedcafe's race report. ¹²

It was Feeney's first victory at his hometown event after finishing second in both races there last year, 7NEWS reported, and the win guaranteed his place in the penultimate round of the Supercars finals series at Sandown. Speedcafe quoted the 24-year-old as emotional on the final lap: "I was emotional starting that last lap, I nearly looped it into Turn 1 [because] I was tearing up." ¹²

Feeney started from pole after the Top Ten Shootout and told Speedcafe he had expected to be strong even in dry conditions, though he noted Kostecki "was really fast in that second stint" before he was able to drive away once clear of traffic. ¹

Early carnage and the opening safety car

The race's tone was set at the start. Feeney got the jump on Will Brown into the chicane, but behind them Anton De Pasquale (Team 18) and Kai Allen (Grove Racing) interlocked wheels, giving the Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro a right rear puncture, Speedcafe reported. Allen then clashed with the other Team 18 Camaro of David Reynolds coming onto Hill Parade at the end of Lap 1, leaving Reynolds with left rear wheel damage; he finished three laps down. ¹

De Pasquale's right rear tyre delaminated as he entered the pits, bringing out the Safety Car a lap later for debris strewn across the straight. At that point Feeney led Brown, Aaron Cameron, Kostecki, Wood, Mostert, Hughes, Murray, Cameron Waters and Cameron Hill. Racing resumed on Lap 7, and on Lap 9 the Erebus Motorsport Camaro of Jobe Stewart retired with a suspected transaxle failure, per Speedcafe. ¹

In the pit cycle, Kostecki was the first top-10 runner to stop on Lap 18; Brown pitted on Lap 24 and rejoined ahead of Kostecki but was quickly re-passed at Turn 11. Feeney pitted from the lead on Lap 27 and resumed with a two-second margin, Speedcafe's report stated, while Kostecki had climbed from fourth to second in the opening stint. ¹

Team orders reshape the podium fight

A mid-race battle for fourth between Brown and Mostert brought Ryan Wood into contention. On Lap 49 Mostert lunged Brown at Turn 11 and effected a block pass, opening the door for Wood, and shortly afterwards Mostert let his teammate through on team orders, Speedcafe reported. Brown's continued fight ultimately cost him track position; he pitted and faded to 11th. ¹

Mostert ran long to Lap 62 from third, gaining a tyre advantage over the top two but sitting five seconds off the lead. Then, with 15 laps to go, he was instructed to back off and let Wood through so Wood could chase a Finals spot, with Speedcafe reporting that Mostert had been closing on the leaders before the call ended that charge. ¹

7NEWS published the radio exchange: the team said "Let's keep it calm, let's start dropping back", Mostert replied "You want me to come back again now? Are you sure?", and the team insisted "Drop it back it now! 10 seconds, he's under pressure from [Andre] Heimgartner." 7NEWS reported that Mostert appeared unhappy during the exchange and that the order denied him a chance at a fourth straight Gold Coast victory. ²

With Wood's Sandown hopes slipping, Mostert re-passed his teammate on the final lap to take third, 7NEWS reported, finishing 14.0183 seconds behind Feeney with Wood fourth, 1.1143 seconds further back. ²¹

Late fuel stops decide the last Sandown place

The decisive swing came through rival pit stops. Macauley Jones pitted from 14th with a few laps to go, putting De Pasquale level on points with Wood in the Finals Series reckoning, Speedcafe reported. Then, with eight laps remaining, Jarrod Hughes (Erebus Motorsport) pitted from sixth short on fuel, with team principal Brad Tremain telling the broadcast: "We made a mistake. Just put the wrong amount in. We were about four laps short." Cooper Murray (PremiAir Racing) pitted with four laps left, dropping from seventh. ¹

Those stops vaulted De Pasquale, whose 14th place was enough to clinch the seventh and final spot to advance to Sandown, moving him to seventh in the Finals Series standings. He had rebounded from the Lap 1 puncture to be the best-finishing Camaro driver, 7NEWS noted, which also recalled his Bathurst 1000 heartbreak when he ran out of fuel on the last lap. Hughes finished 16th and Murray 17th, per Speedcafe. ¹²

Yahoo News Australia reported that social-media speculation suggested General Motors might have ordered the rival Chevrolet teams to pit to help De Pasquale, which would breach rules confining team orders to individual teams. Supercars and GM subsequently dismissed those theories, with Yahoo reporting the pair would have run out of fuel without stopping. Once Walkinshaw realised Wood could not advance, it allowed Mostert back through to third. ³

Eliminations and the Finals picture at Sandown

Ryan Wood, who started the day ninth in the Finals Series rankings, was the first Finals Series driver to miss out on advancing to Sandown, alongside Kai Allen and Jack Le Brocq, Speedcafe reported. Under the format, the bottom three drivers in the top-10 rankings who failed to win one of the two Gold Coast races were eliminated, 7NEWS explained; Allen and Le Brocq had started 22nd and 20th, and Le Brocq's race worsened with an early puncture-related pit stop. ¹²

Seven drivers advanced to the Sandown semi-final stage: Feeney, Mostert, De Pasquale, Matt Payne, Brodie Kostecki, Will Brown and Cameron Waters, according to Yahoo News Australia. Payne (Grove Racing) retained his place at the top of the Finals Series standings ahead of Feeney, Kostecki, Mostert, Brown, Waters and De Pasquale, per Speedcafe's report. ¹³

The controversy has reignited criticism of the finals format, which Yahoo News Australia reported was first employed last year. The outlet attributed reader reactions on social media arguing the format encourages teams to sacrifice their own drivers' race results to help teammates. ³

Full podium and finishing order highlights

The top 10 was completed by Andre Heimgartner (Brad Jones Racing), Matt Payne (Grove Racing), Cameron Waters (Tickford Racing), James Golding (Blanchard Racing Team), Cameron Hill (Brad Jones Racing) and Thomas Randle (Tickford Racing), Speedcafe's classified results show, with Will Brown 11th and Kai Allen 13th. Jobe Stewart was the sole non-finisher, listed as a DNF. ¹