This weekend’s penultimate round of the Supercars season sees the inaugural semi final of the sport’s shiny, brand new Finals system.
The format began with amazing fanfare and silenced critics immediately on the streets of the Gold Coast – and set a new precedent for the wild pressure cooker for the ten finals contenders.
Three drivers were eliminated after Surfers Paradise, headlined by former champ and Bathurst 1000 winner Brodie Kostecki – who suffered the unwanted mantle of crash of the season in his wild search for speed in Saturday qualifying.
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This weekend at Sandown, again another three will be eliminated to set up a four-man fight for the title in the Adelaide Grand Final at the end of the month.
It has ramped up the pressure and the interest in historic Sandown’s annual round of the season. Nerves will be at fever pitch – as they should be when the stakes are at their highest.
Every single session will count.
Any problem will be amplified and could instantly derail an entire season’s work.
Qualifying will be as important as any this year.
And the two 250 kilometre races across the weekend will be captivating – with a footy style LIVE Ladder a must for the Kayo and Fox Sports’ exclusive coverage – as we plot the fortunes of the seven finals contenders.
The fascination will be on just who makes the cut. At least one massive name will miss, maybe more. And their season hopes will be gone.
“No one is safe, it’s cut-throat” said Ford contender Cam Waters.
“One little mistake and you can be out.”
And that’s precisely why Supercars has adopted their new Finals format – to set a hyped footy equivalent run to winning the sport’s Holy Grail.
CHAMP ON THE ROPES
Will Brown’s title defence is on the line this weekend.
The defending series champion is fifth in the standings of the seven finals contenders – so as it stands, he needs to race his way in.
But it’s his qualifying that is his biggest issue ahead of the weekend.
It’s been a season long achilles heel.
The champ has simply been poor on his one lap flyers to set the grid – which has been amplified with his teammate, Broc Feeney, setting the pace all year long.
His last four races he’s dug a hole during quali and had his work cut out from then on to salvage results in races – which thankfully for him, he’s been able to do (he’s passed more cars than any other this season in races – 106 at last count across the season’s 29 races).
Will Brown’s title defence is on the line this weekend.Source: Getty Images
But he simply must improve his qualifying – his results across the past four races netted a lowly 16th at Tailem Bend, 12th at Bathurst, and then 10th and 19th on the GC streets. If these don’t improve, he’s unlikely to be able to advance to the Adelaide final.
“I’ve got to improve on what I did at the Gold Coast and do a better job,” Brown said.
“I think the Finals are living up to exactly what Supercars wanted them to… it’s putting so much pressure on everyone involved.”
Working in his favour, is his Triple Eight Engineering team’s ominous record at Sandown. He’s been pole the last two race starts at the venue.
He needs that type of form if he is to have any chance of going back-to-back as Supercars champ in 2025.
TEAM WARS
Chaz Mostert to many is the favourite heading into the weekend to advance to Adelaide’s Final.
That’s easy to say off the back of his scintillating sweep of the pair of Gold Coast 500 races.
But it’s the added team element that is set to work in his favour this weekend.
Mostert is the sole representative from his Ford team, Walkinshaw Andretti United, after his teammate Ryan Wood exited the finals on the GC.
He takes on the duo of Feeney and Brown from Red Bull Ampol Racing, the pair of Cam Waters and Thomas Randle from Tickford Racing, and the Bathurst champ, Matthew Payne and his rookie teammate, Kai Allen, from Penrite Grove Racing.
In simple terms, WAU will put all of their efforts towards ensuring their one car advances beyond this weekend.
Their chips are all in with their one Mustang.
And they can have their second car potentially provide running help to Mostert along the way when required.
But it’s their opposition who will be dealing with having two live contenders.
How Triple Eight, Tickford and Grove deal with giving priority to one over the other, how they deal with pit lane stacking (if a safety car is called and both cars are forced to pit at the same time), and how they deal with two lively egos both wanting to be number one, will be pivotal to who does and doesn’t make the final four.
You only have to look at McLaren’s almighty struggles in Formula One this season dealing with two leading contenders vying for the title, to see the issues ahead in Sandown’s pitlane this weekend.
As Harry Hogge said in Days of Thunder: “One too many roosters in the henhouse” causes nothing but trouble.
We’ll see how it plays out this weekend.
Chaz Mostert to many is the favourite heading into the weekend to advance to Adelaide’s Final.Source: Getty Images
BROC’S TIME
Broc Feeney has been the standout performer so far this Supercar season.
He won the Sprint championship earlier this year.
He’s already been crowned as the qualifying king for 2025.
He has a pair of podiums last start on the GC.
And he leads the title fight leading into this weekend by 30 points.
Even in his bad days, like Bathurst – he was still able to salvage a very respectable sixth place finish amid the wild late chaos on Mount Panorama.
Add to this, he has a strong history at Sandown – finishing second and first in the last two races at the Melbourne venue.
The beauty of Feeney in 2025 is his consistency.
He qualifies at the front and then races his way into top 4 results (this year alone he’s converted 73% of top four starts into podiums).
He’s been mentored and groomed by the best in the business, his boss, seven-time Supercars champ, Jamie Whincup.
Now, he’s within touching distance of making it through to vie for a maiden title of his own on the streets of Adelaide.
But one slip up this weekend, and it’s all gone.
That’s the fine line our top contenders are treading.
Broc Feeney has been the standout performer so far this Supercar season.Source: News Corp Australia
WILDCARD WATCH
The AFL ensured Wildcards would be the hot topic of this week with their new look 2026 Finals, but Supercars has their own two Finals wildcards at play this weekend.
Not many will give South Australian rookie Kai Allen (sixth in points) and Tickford young gun Thomas Randle (seventh in points) huge hope in advancing to the final four.
Both have yet to win a race. And probably both need a race win this weekend to make it through to the championship decider.
But the beauty of finals is it’s wide open for both to advance, if they’re to have a weekend out of the box.
In many ways – both have nothing to lose, as most gave them next to no chance to have advanced this far in the format.
And the fact that both have made it to the final seven is a huge result for the two fledgling former Super 2 champions.
Randle in particular, wouldn’t have even advanced if it wasn’t for a penalty to Anton De Pasquale late in the Sunday race at Surfers Paradise.
So he has the ultimate free hit.
“We’ve got nothing to lose, so it’s time to get physical and try and win a race,” Randle said.
“There’s never been a better time to win than right now.”
Watch for the two Mustangs of Allen and Randle to have the elbows out this weekend. They can place their car in more precarious and daring positions than they might have previously. Risk versus reward is huge for them.
If they fail – most didn’t factor them in contention anyway. But if it works and they can pull off an almighty upset result – then all roads will lead to Adelaide.
Best have the popcorn prepped for the weekend.
Opening practice begins Friday with a pair of 81-lap races starting at 3.20pm EDST on Saturday and Sunday.
