{"id":590698,"date":"2026-04-07T06:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T06:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/590698\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T06:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T06:37:13","slug":"taupo-a-litmus-test-for-triple-eights-ford-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/590698\/","title":{"rendered":"Taup\u014d a litmus test for Triple Eight\u2019s Ford switch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TRIPLE Eight\u2019s first weekend at Taup\u014d will prove the next litmus test amid the team\u2019s switch from Chevrolet to Ford.<\/p>\n<p>The team, through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.v8sleuth.com.au\/stats-driver-1545-Broc-Feeney\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Broc Feeney<\/a>, has taken race wins at both Supercars stops so far in 2026 at Sydney Motorsport Park and Albert Park.<\/p>\n<p>However, their form swung wildly during the latter; while Feeney won a race and both he and teammate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.v8sleuth.com.au\/stats-driver-1292-Will-Brown\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Will Brown<\/a> claimed a pole position each, both also started races from outside the top 10.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, it was Feeney\u2019s 11th-place start in the Sunday race <a href=\"https:\/\/www.v8sleuth.com.au\/feeney-defends-lighting-it-up-amid-turn-1-carnage\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">that led him to be in the centre of carnage at turn 1 that forced him to retire<\/a> and cost him his championship lead.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/superstore.v8sleuth.com.au\/products\/v8-sleuth-magazine-subscription?utm_source=SRBuyButton&amp;utm_medium=website\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/sleuth-subscription-issue-3_1024x1024.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It also cost Triple Eight a chance to learn more about the different setup requirements of their new Mustangs compared to their old Camaros.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe tried something pretty decent for that (Sunday) race hoping to learn something, which we learnt nothing,\u201d Feeney told V8 Sleuth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was sitting in the medical centre watching <a href=\"https:\/\/www.v8sleuth.com.au\/kostecki-burgles-brown-to-win-albert-park-finale\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Will and Brodie (battle)<\/a>, and Will had all the same things going on that I had on (Saturday); getting loose into the corners and all that stuff while Brodie was just so fast in that middle sector.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got a bit of work to do. Obviously, it\u2019s just different and track dependent. We\u2019re on a learning curve.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was fantastic to get a win, but it was just an up and down weekend where we sort of lacked a bit of pace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The tighter Taup\u014d layout represents the next challenge for the Ford returnees.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a track that has also delivered wildly swinging form in the team\u2019s two visits to date.<\/p>\n<p>Their Camaros were utterly peerless in dry conditions in 2024, with Brown besting his teammate in a head-to-head battle to win the Sunday race \u2013 one in which the third-placed car was almost 15 seconds adrift.<\/p>\n<p>In contrast, neither Red Bull Ampol driver was a factor in last year\u2019s event \u2013 the first to feature Dunlop\u2019s new Supersoft tyre \u2013 with Feeney posting his worst qualifying result of the season on the Sunday with 20th.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to going to one of those tracks \u2026 a bit more slower, stop-start track, different to the first two, because even Sydney\u2019s pretty flowy,\u201d Feeney said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe struggled a bit in Taup\u014d last year (although) we got a bit better towards the end of the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just keen to try and have a good weekend. Obviously two weekends back to back is going to be a lot of fun and hopefully everyone calms down a little bit and it\u2019s a bit less chaotic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TRIPLE Eight\u2019s first weekend at Taup\u014d will prove the next litmus test amid the team\u2019s switch from Chevrolet&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-590698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}