Feeney: Brown, Kostecki success gives me confidence

Broc Feeney believes he can have a rookie Repco Supercars Championship season as good as, if not better than, what Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki had in 2021.

The Red Bull Ampol Racing recruit is in rare air heading into the forthcoming season.

In an unheralded move, the team has brought an unseasoned driver into its ranks – the 19-year-old replacing seven-time championship winner Jamie Whincup.

It’s been a meteoric rise for Feeney who only began car racing a little over five years ago, won the Super3 Series in 2019, and triumphed in the Super2 Series last year.

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While the Gold Coaster isn’t letting the hype get to his head, he’s conscious that he’s got all the tools at his disposal to put together a solid first campaign.

“To be honest, I haven’t put a number on it,” Feeney told Speedcafe.com.

“I’m not going, ‘I want to finish here or higher’ for the season.

“I’ve probably gone through the process a lot quicker than anyone else has. I’ve only done, I think, eight rounds in Super2 where a lot of those rookies have done four or five seasons.

“I think for me, it’s a little bit different, and I’m going into the number one team as well. There’s certainly going to be a bit of pressure on me, but it’s not like, ‘I want to do this’.

“But to see Will and Brodie do so well [in 2021] – Will winning races – gives me a lot of confidence.

“At the end of the day my whole goal is to win races and win championships. I haven’t put a timeline on that yet, so I’m not going to stop until I get there.

“People might think I’m crazy, but I want to go out and challenge for wins and podiums and consistently try and be in that top 10. I think that’d be a good season for me.”

Seeing Erebus Motorsport’s duo succeed throughout 2021 in what was their first year as full-timers bodes well for Feeney in 2022.

Kostecki brought the team early success in the year, claiming a podium finish at Sandown International Motor Raceway.

Later that year, Brown scored his first full-time Supercars Championship podium and win at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Paired with experienced head David Russell, Kostecki claimed third in the season-ending Bathurst 1000.

All told, Brown wound up eighth in the drivers’ championship while Kostecki was ninth.

“Watching Sydney was pretty hard for me, to be honest,” said Feeney.

“I was sitting on the sideline watching all these races happen. It’s a very proud moment as a young kid seeing another young kid doing so well.

“I raced Brodie and Will [in 2020] and it gives me a lot of confidence because I was running with those guys [in the Dunlop Super2 Series].

“It was a very weird season for me. It wasn’t my best performance but I showed some pretty good pace and I was matching if not sometimes bettering those guys.

“I’m looking forward to jumping into the big team next year. One hundred percent, that’s got to be the goal, to win a race, to get a podium, we’ll wait and see.”

The opening event of the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship takes place at Sydney Motorsport Park for the Sydney SuperNight on March 4-6.