Triple Eight ‘scratching our heads’ after Taupo troubles
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 16 April 2025
For the first time in 19 rounds since The Bend in 2023, not a single Triple Eight car appeared on the podium and a “very long debrief” is in prospect.
After recording an emphatic one-two in last year’s Taupo finale, it was notable neither Will Brown or Broc Feeney were even close to a trophy across the three races with the best result for both drivers fifth.
It came out of nowhere given the team still enjoys a commanding lead in the teams championship and they had ominously been trending in the right direction across the opening two rounds.
It falls well below Triple Eight’s high standards and Feeney admits there is a lot of thinking to do before they head to happy hunting ground Symmons Plains.
The team hopes this is not a sign of things to come given all-but one of the remaining rounds in the Sprint Cup utilises the Super440 format seen at Taupo.
“I think it’s been a while since we’ve been scratching our heads this much. Probably, maybe Sydney last year? We struggled quite a bit,” Feeney told Auto Action.
“We’ll obviously go back and look at it. We threw pretty much everything at it throughout the weekend, which is pretty unusual for us. We’re normally pretty small changes, but we were doing a lot.
“We’ll all go back and look at it. It will be a very long debrief as it should.
“There’s no hiding, but we’re not there to call anyone out. But we’re there just to learn.
“I always say to the team, if you think I’m doing a bad job, tell me. Be the first person to tell me because I’ll work on it.”
It is not all doom and gloom for Triple Eight however, with Feeney making massive gains across the longer 200km finale.
Being forced to start all the way down in 20th due to the costly decision of staying in the garage at the end of Q1, Feeney put in an inspired drive to seventh despite a massive chunk of his left rear bumper missing.
“The final race was really positive,” Feeney said.
“To pass that many cars and be one of the fastest cars was lots of fun.
“I think we just made a really, I suppose, dumb decision to start the day to not run another set of tires. If we did that, I think that day would’ve been a hell of a lot better.
“I did not actually know (some of the rear bar) was missing. I just saw it on TV halfway through the race, so thankfully I did not lose time in the pit stop.
“My car’s obviously very beaten up. But lot of people say I need to get my elbows out a bit more. I think I certainly showed that!”
Image: Mark Horsburgh
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