Will Brown with engineer Andrew Edwards. Image: InSyde Media
Triple Eight announced Tuesday that it will switch Brown into its spare chassis amid efforts to rescue the driver’s season.
Brown failed to make the top 10 in any of the weekend’s three qualifying sessions, managing just 19th on the grid on Sunday while teammate Broc Feeney took pole.
Feeney finished second in that afternoon’s 200km race while Brown was 17th after a 15-second penalty for a clash with Rylan Gray.
The 2024 champion opened up on his issues via his Lucky Dogs Podcast, declaring “I’m not a 19th (place) driver”.
“There’s only so much you can take,” said the 28-year-old.
“I’ve fought for a championship in every car I’ve driven or category, and right now I think I look pretty stupid out there, to be honest.”
Brown said he was losing time on the straights compared to Feeney at Wanneroo.
“[I] don’t know how much I’m meant to say on it, but I was 1.6 tenths down in qualifying on the Sunday to Broc, just on the straights,” Brown revealed.
“That was the difference… and Broc’s not the fastest down the straight either. Broc’s probably four hundredths off the Chevys.
“It’s very hard, but we’re not exactly sure what was wrong on the weekend to have that, we’ve been last in the speed traps over the last three rounds.”
Both Triple Eight drivers complained of straight line performance during the Hidden Valley weekend back in June, after which its engines were dyno tested.
“We’re not down on horsepower,” he said. “We build the engines, it’s something else that we need to look at.”
Brown also shouldered a portion of the blame for the deficit to Feeney, saying his teammate was doing “a better job in driving over the weekend in some scenarios”.
However, he said that was not enough to explain the full deficit.
“I’m doing more than I ever have done,” he added.
“I’m doing more notes, more training, more stuff leading into weekends and over the weekend to try and improve and unfortunately it’s not working.”
Without a podium in the last 17 races, Brown currently sits seventh in the championship and stressed a need to turn around his form before the start of the Finals Series.
He was outperformed throughout the bulk of last season by Feeney, but ended up ahead in the final championship standings due to the polarising format.
Brown will be in action at The Bend on Friday, set to turn 10 laps in Jackson Walls’ customer Triple Eight car during rookie testing.