AN ill-fated flick-spin has become a lightning rod for Broc Feeney criticisms, to the point where it has overshadowed an almighty performance that occurred less than 24 hours earlier.
This writer would strongly argue that Feeney’s victory in the Saturday leg of the Melbourne SuperSprint was the undisputed finest of his career to date. And that’s no small thing given the growing sample size to choose from.
At age 23, Feeney has rocketed to 29 Supercars Championship race wins, making him the active leader in that category and 13th on the all-time list, just one behind Dick Johnson.
Many of those 29 triumphs have been generated by scintillating speed from car and driver, but not #29.
Pic: Supplied/Mark Horsburgh
Although he started the sprint race in question from pole position, it was far from straightforward.
Dick Johnson Racing’s Brodie Kostecki was the benchmark all week in Melbourne, with the Red Bull Ampol cars struggling to keep pace – especially in race trim.
“Hats off to the lads that nailed the set-up. We were never totally happy with our speed this weekend and even at our speediest we felt we were lacking a little,” conceded Triple Eight team manager Mark Dutton.
That was evident for all to see in Race 6 of the season, once Kostecki cleared front-row starter Aaron Cameron.
The red-hot #17 Shell car hounded the #88 Ford lap after lap.
There’s no more intimidating presence in the Supercars field than Kostecki.
But Feeney, exhibiting increased grit following his 2025 title heartache, would not be intimidated.
Unable, for once, to lean on superior pace, Feeney got the elbows out like never before, placing his car in all the right spots and flashing the kind of race craft his old teammate Shane van Gisbergen would be proud of to not only negate lunges but also thwart criss-crosses.
What happened the next morning, when Kostecki harassed Will Brown into a mistake, only added weight to what went on.
It’s proof of Feeney’s evolution. Proof that he can now win even when not in the best equipment. And a reminder that his prominent part in the Sunday pile-up shouldn’t be the only takeover from his 2026 Melbourne SuperSprint.
On that, for all the probably justifiable critics of that particular manoeuvre, Tickford Racing co-driver Mark Winterbottom has come largely to Feeney’s defence.
Pic: Supplied/Mark Horsburgh
“Hindsight is a big thing. I think if you’re Broc, you don’t stay on the throttle for so long,” Winterbottom admitted via Supercars’ Run Home podcast.
“He stayed on the throttle for a long time when he was flick-spinning it, but when you panic and you know there’s cars all around you, you’re just trying to get out of the situation.
“You’re going to get hit regardless… he actually almost did an amazing spin.
“He got the car to flick-spin and have momentum, but it just kept going around. If he had have just feathered off the throttle and got on, he actually would have driven away and only lost about three positions.
“So it was almost heroic, what he did, but the fact it kept spinning, it was unlucky.”