Broc Feeney has benefited from a shock failure for Ryan Wood and contrasting strategy calls to extend his championship lead with victory at the Bosch Power Tools Perth Super 440.
The path to Feeney’s fourth win of 2025 was cleared by a rear wheel failure for Wood, with Jaxon Evans and Cooper Murray suffering similar fates in the 50-lapper at CARCO.com.au Raceway.
Cam Waters traded the lead with Wood in the opening stint, but missed the podium altogether after Triple Eight successfully undercut its two drivers to gain track position.
Will Brown denied Chaz Mostert to complete a Triple Eight one-two, with Mostert climbing from 11th to spare Walkinshaw Andretti United’s blushes. Waters held out Matt Payne for fourth, with Thomas Randle, Brodie Kostecki, Nick Percat, Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison rounding out the top 10.
Heading into Sunday, Feeney leads Brown by 27 points, with Payne and Waters 107 and 117 points back.
“I thought it might be pretty hard to win that one, I was sort of letting those guys do their thing, and when they were starting to get racy I thought that we could come back into it,” said Feeney, who has now won three of the last four races.
“It was so hard to pass, and then Woody run off, and I feel like we’re nearly all doing that every lap. It’s such tight margins at the moment, he’s obviously been doing a great job, and I nearly went in there myself quite a few times.
“Pit stops were great, strategy was awesome. I was pretty disappointed earlier not to finish on the podium, but it certainly makes me smile that one.”
Waters and Payne got the jump on Wood as the field rounded Turn 1, where Andre Heimgartner was shuffled off the road by Aaron Cameron. On lap 3, Payne had a crack at Waters into Turn 6, with the race leader hanging on.
Behind them, Brown picked off Kostecki for sixth, while Mostert slowly marched forward, jumping from 11th to sixth by the end of lap 17.
On lap 12, Wood picked off Payne for second, helping Waters extend his lead to 1.1s. However, Wood was in no mood to stick around, pegging the margin back to 0.4s by lap 17.
On lap 19, Wood got underneath Waters at Turn 6 and looked to have completed the move. Waters responded, taking the lead down the pit straight, only for Wood bomb back down the inside at Turn 1. The lead battle brought Payne, Feeney, Brown and Mostert into play.
The race turned on its head on lap 22 as attention turned to Wood off the road at Turn 6. Replays showed the #2 Mobil 1 Truck Assist Ford suffered a left rear failure, with Wood immediately scrubbed out of contention.
Triple Eight reacted and brought Brown in on lap 24, with Feeney stopping a lap later. Feeney emerged just ahead on cold tyres, and Brown was unable to get past.
WAU responded and fitted Mostert with three tyres, handing a net gain to the #25 Mobil 1 Optus Ford. Waters pressed on as Payne stopped on lap 26, and the Penrite Ford narrowly emerged behind Mostert.
Waters finally stopped on lap 27, and emerged behind the Triple Eight duo. However, cold tyres brought Waters back to Mostert, who jumped to third on the following lap.
It revealed Feeney as leader from Brown by 0.4s, with Mostert closing on the Red Bull Ampol Chevrolets. Waters, Payne, Randle, Kostecki, Percat, De Pasquale and Hill rounded out the top 10.
Down the order, Evans was also ruled out with a loose right rear wheel, with the #12 SCT Logistics Chevrolet stopping out of harm’s way at the infield the exit of Turn 1. Into the final 10 laps, Murray suffered a similar fate into Turn 6, and returned to the lane.
Brown fell into the clutches of Mostert into the final seven laps, with Feeney clearing out to a 1.4s lead. The end margin was 1.5767s, with Brown easing to second after Mostert’s challenge fell short.
Supercars action resumes in Perth on Sunday with Boost Mobile Qualifying at 11:00am local/1:00pm AEST, which sets the running order for the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout at 1:05pm local/3:05pm AEST. The weekend concludes with Race 16 at 3:15pm local/5:15pm AEST.