Will Brown has won the third and final race of the Tasmania Supersprint this evening, cruising to a four-second victory at Symmons Plains.
The win was nothing but commanding for Brown, the Erebus driver launching well clear off pole to lead into Turn 2 over teammate Brodie Kostecki.
Kostecki pressure his teammate over the opening laps but was unable to match his pace, eventually dropping back and within arms reach of Jack Le Brocq and Broc Feeney.
Feeney was able to pick off Kostecki following the round of pit stops to come home for second, only slightly able to clas into Brown’s five-second lead on the run to the flag.
There was some consolation for Kostecki despite a serious struggle with pace, the championship leader able to retake third off a fading Shane van Gisbergen over the final laps.
Van Gisbergen’s drive for fourth was hard-fought, strategy and pace in clear air proving the difference to move him up the order from his grid spot of ninth. An early stop was the reason, the defending champion able to impressively undercut a host of cars ahead to run fourth once the entire field had stopped.
The Kiwi was able to overtake Kostecki on Lap 32 off a superb exit from the hairpin, only for his much older tyres to cause him to drop off and lose the position just six laps later.
Le Brocq was more efficient to close out this race, hanging on the tail of the van Gisbergen and Kostecki battle to hold firm for fifth. It was a good reward for the Matt Stone Racing team who punched well above their weight in Tasmania and should count themselves unlucky to not end up on the podium.
As was the case in Race 11, the Mustangs came to life towards the conclusion of Race 12, with Chaz Mostert and Cam Waters charging home for sixth and seventh respectively, despite the latter pouring white smoke over the second half of the race.
A quiet Mark Winterbottom drove to eighth, with Anton De Pasquale a big mover to drive from 17th to ninth. Bryce Fullwood rounded out the top 10, a decent result in a relatively tame weekend for the Tickford driver.
Cameron Hill was again the top rookie, dropping to eleventh in the closing stages, but has taken the challenge to Matt Payne in the overall battle of the youngsters.
Payne ran as high as 12th in this race but was hurt following contact on the front left which caused some rubbing from his bumper on the tyre. He was able to limp home in 21st.
It was another resilient drive from Andre Heimgartner, the Race 10 runner-up facing troubles at various points throughout proceedings. Off the start, the Kiwi was forced onto the Turn 3 gravel as he ran three-wide with David Reynolds and James Golding, before recovering near the back to start moving forward once again.
He was soon in the wars with James Courtney, the two trading paint in on Lap 7 heading into Turn 2, both running long into the corner and running onto the outside gravel before slowly returning to action.
Heimgartner was able to recover for 17th, a result which doesn’t necessarily reflect the difficulties he faced throughout the race.
The results from Race 12 see Brown close the gap to Kostecki to just 87 points on the championship ladder, with Mostert holding third over van Gisbergen. Feeney is only 19 points off his teammate, with Waters and Heimgartner running sixth and seventh. Payne drops down the ladder off the back of a tricky round but still holds firm as top rookie.
Supercars next returns on June 16-18 with the Darwin Triple Crown.
Header Image: Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images
