The opening round of the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship, the Thrifty Bathurst 500, could rightly be regarded as a success. With Shane van Gisbergen now moved to the USA pursuing his motorsport career and last season’s champion Brodie Kostecki currently on the sideline, it has opened the door for a whole swarth of new names and personalities to come to the fore, and they did.
Cameron Hill (Tyrepower Racing), Richie Stanaway (Penrite Racing), James Golding (PremiAir Nulon Racing), Todd Hazelwood (Eebus Motorsport), Nick Percat (Bendix Racing), Ryan Wood (Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing), Matt Payne (Penrite Racing), Jack Le Brocq (Erebus Racing) and Jaxon Evans (SCT Motorsport) are now all vying for top ten results and even podiums.
With Van Gisbergen’s shadow no longer over the grid, Broc Feeney stepped up and put his car on pole position, winning both 250km race Top-Ten shootouts. While winning the first race, Feeney came home third in Race 2 and lies second in the championship behind teammate Will Brown.
Having moved to Red Bull Ampol Racing for the 2024 season, Brown is immediately on the pace and finished second in Race 1. He then jumped Chaz Mostert at the start of Race two and held the lead until the end.
The downside of no van Gisbergen or Kostecki is that there is now no benchmark for the rest of the field to be compared too. In terms of marketing, there is also no comparison either and that now opens the door for a fresh look at the new superstars of the Supercars grid.
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