Broc Feeney has won the opening race of the 2026 Supercars Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park and given Triple Eight the perfect start to its new relationship with Ford.
A Feeney victory may not have been unexpected, but the manner by which he won certainly was. From the second row of the grid, he settled into third early on and chose to make his compulsory pitstop exactly midway through, undercutting the cars in front of him to seize the lead.
The big shock was that those cars were the two Blanchard Racing Team Fords of Aaron Cameron and James Golding.
BRT is the last team in the Supercars pitlane because of its 11th-placed finish in the 2025 championship, and even when it announced that it had entered into a technical partnership with Triple Eight, few would have predicted it being so competitive in the opening round.
The shocks started in Practice and continued in Qualifying. Golding was swift all the way though and in the initial Qualifying sessions, the BRT Fords were again up the front. The drivers carried their speed into the Top 10 session – and then blocked out the front row, Golding edging Cameron.
But Feeney jumped ahead of Cameron for the win, while in his debut with BRT Golding was a solid third, taking the place from Cam Waters in the Tickford Racing Mustang. He would go on to drop another place, with Grove Racing’s Matt Payne overtaking late on, Fords taking the top five places in the 26-lap race – with Ford Performance boss Mark Rushbrook looking on.
It was an impressive debut with Ford for Triple Eight, replicating its feat from 16 years ago by winning on its debut with a new manufacturer, when it switched from Ford to Holden.
“I remember how to drive, which is a good thing!” said Feeney after a 2.934s win. “The effort that has gone in over the last couple of months has been extraordinary. The first time I drove this car I was quietly confident. [But] I had to fight to get into the front there.”
Broc Feeney, Triple Eight Race Engineering
Photo by: Edge Photographics
Cameron was smiling after taking second despite a bad start. “I didn’t think I would get the start with Jimmy there and I just tried to control it from there,” he said after his career-best result.
“I got a good launch and then it bogged but Jimmy got a worse one! I was surprised that I kept the tyres on it, it was the first time I have kept the tyres on it.”
In his first race for BRT, Golding was delighted – especially as a year earlier BRT’s two cars crashed into each other in Qualifying.
“I thought it was good but then Cammo [Cameron] went straight past me!” he said. “I would have been good to win it, but it was good to be on the podium and to get some points. It’s been unbelievable since I worked into the workshop, just a good bunch of people to be working with.”
In sixth was Anton de Pasquale with his Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro, coming from behind to overtake the second Triple Eight car of Will Brown and Anton Heimgartner, who was the best of the Toyota debutants in the GR Supra.
Supercars Champion Chaz Mostert had a tough start to his title defence, starting from 20th on the grid but making ground to finish 15th.
After an ominous start, with Fords taking nine of the top 11 places, the Supercars will return to the track on Saturday for a two-part Qualifying session at 3:40pm and then 4:00pm local time. There will be a Top 10 Shoot Out at 4:35pm, before the 52-lap race, under lights, at 7:35pm.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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