WITH the 2025 Repco Supercars Championship now past the halfway stage in terms of both metrics, rounds and races, it feels timely to check in on the intra-team battles up and down the pitlane.

Three rounds of the regular season remain, and there’s still a stack of teams dreaming of getting two cars into finals.

Amid the wait for next month’s Ipswich Super440, internal comparisons make for some fascinating reading, particularly when it comes to one hard-to-miss trend.

That is that of the eight teams who aren’t fielding a first-year driver, seven have seen the older driver in their line-up outdone more often than not in qualifying by a younger teammate. Tickford Racing is the exception.

One theory floated has been that the younger steerers with less habits embedded have been able to adapt to the new-specification Dunlop tyre quicker than their more experienced counterparts.

Whether or not that is on the money, it will be interesting to see how these records stack up come the end of year following the remaining 12 qualifying/race hitouts.

Triple Eight Race Engineering

Will Brown and Broc Feeney. Pic: Supplied

Qualifying head-to-head: Broc Feeney 20, Will Brown 2

Championship rankings: Broc Feeney 1st, Will Brown 2nd

Ironically, the reigning champion, the man who is perched second in the standings, is the driver who is on the wrong side of the most lopsided intra-team record in 2025 Supercars.

Brown has appeared increasingly frustrated by his one-lap struggles, to the point where he joked in Townsville that he should revert to being an enduro co-driver.

“Just really struggling in qualifying,” he mused on the broadcast. “It’s kind of getting to the stage where you go out there and you start questioning, what sort of lap am I going to put in here?”

Feeney on the other hand has 10 poles this season and a further seven top-three starts.

Grove Racing

Qualifying head-to-head: Matt Payne 18, Kai Allen 4

Championship rankings: Matt Payne 3rd, Kai Allen 12th

You have to cut Allen some slack, as a promising rookie being directly compared to one of the best in the business.

But hats off to Payne, who is having a tremendous campaign.

Tickford Racing

Cam Waters and Thomas Randle. Pic: Supplied/Mark Horsburgh

Qualifying head-to-head: Cam Waters 16, Thomas Randle 6

Championship rankings: Cam Waters 4th, Thomas Randle 8th

Waters remains the spearhead at Campbellfield.

Randle started the year well and is actually responsible for Tickford’s only pole since the Sydney season-opener, but had a nightmare run through Darwin and Townsville.

Walkinshaw Andretti United

Qualifying head-to-head: Ryan Wood 13, Chaz Mostert 9

Championship rankings: Chaz Mostert 5th, Ryan Wood 10th

The key anomaly where qualifying and race results tell two different stories.

Wood has ragged the car time and again to rank sixth in terms of average qualifying position (Mostert is 10th).

Mostert though is 345 points ahead on the overall leaderboard, with an extra six podiums to his credit. It is worth noting the #25 was WAU’s lead qualifier for all three Townsville races.

Dick Johnson Racing

The DJR Mustangs run line astern in Townsville. Pic: Supplied/Mark Horsburgh

Qualifying head-to-head: Brodie Kostecki 19, Will Davison 3

Championship rankings: Brodie Kostecki 6th, Will Davison 17th

It’s not always been smooth sailing for the rejuvenated Stapylton squad, but Kostecki has lived up to his end of the bargain to frequently eek the most out of the Shell V-Power Mustang package.

It’s largely been a tough slog for Davison, who took a major step forward in Townsville only to have each of his races curtailed (slow pitstop, damage from Brown contact, loose wheel).

Brad Jones Racing

Qualifying head-to-head: Bryce Fullwood 10, André Heimgartner 9, Macauley Jones 2, Jaxon Evans 1

Championship rankings: André Heimgartner 9th, Bryce Fullwood 14th, Macauley Jones 21st, Jaxon Evans 22nd

The only other instance of qualifying comparisons not exactly translating to the points table pecking order.

Fullwood has been the fastest BJR driver but has had to lament some cases of bad luck and some cases of poor execution, while Heimgartner remains a master of maximising in race trim.

Team 18

Anton De Pasquale has been a shining light for Team 18. Pic: Ross Gibb

Qualifying head-to-head: Anton De Pasquale 15, David Reynolds 7

Championship rankings: Anton De Pasquale 7th, David Reynolds 19th

De Pasquale has been the all-round package which Team 18 had envisaged.

Reynolds has had some excellent glimpses of one-lap pace, but there is no set of teammates further apart in terms of championship position.

Matt Stone Racing

Qualifying head-to-head: Cameron Hill 17, Nick Percat 5

Championship rankings: Cameron Hill 11th, Nick Percat 13th

Another team where qualifying has been one-way traffic for the most part in the younger driver’s favour.

Percat though has done a good job of exhibiting his renowned race craft to regularly make up for lowly grid slots.

PremiAir Racing

Qualifying head-to-head: James Golding 12, Richie Stanaway 10

Championship rankings: James Golding 16th, Richie Stanaway 20th

Part of the perplexing nature of PremiAir Racing’s 2025 has been that both cars have struggled more often than not.

That differs to most other teams where at least one side of the garage has run well to offer some kind of benchmark, or insight into what does and doesn’t work.

Stanaway has been closer to Golding in qualifying than race results thus far.

Erebus Motorsport

Qualifying head-to-head: Jack Le Brocq 17, Cooper Murray 5

Championship rankings: Jack Le Brocq 15th, Cooper Murray 23rd

Murray, to his credit, has started to find his feet in the last couple of rounds and importantly has stayed out of trouble.

Le Brocq nevertheless continues to do a solid job as the team’s senior driver, with the #9 ahead of the #99 on most occasions and still lingering as a finals dark horse if Erebus fires in endurance season.

Blanchard Racing Team

Qualifying head-to-head: James Courtney 14, Aaron Cameron 7, Aaron Love 1

Championship rankings: James Courtney 18th, Aaron Cameron 24th

For what it’s worth, the direct Courtney versus Cameron comparison (i.e. Round 2 onwards) reads 12-7 in the former’s favour.

That scoreline is nothing to be scoffed at for a rookie up against a champion teammate, although Courtney has undoubtedly been able to get far further up the grid on his good days.