Sydney Supercars: Brown wins nail-biting finale

The Erebus driver filtered to the top of the order during the stops, benefiting from the undercut after stopping early, Lap 13, and only taking on two tyres.

That should have left him vulnerable to early pacesetters Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen late in the race, as they stopped on Laps 16 and 19 respectively for three new tyres each.

That's exactly how it looked as if it would play out in the final stint, the T8 pair showing enough pace to run down Brown's six-second lead.

However an epic intra-team battle between the two Red Bull drivers slowed that progress, Whincup ignoring calls from the pits to let van Gisbergen past and even running his Kiwi teammate wide several times as they bashed doors.

They eventually settled into a rhythm, Whincup leading van Gisbergen despite those calls to let him through, but fell just short of running Brown down.

That meant a sensational first win for the likeable rookie, which he celebrated with some impressive circle work. 

"I was shitting myself a little bit when they were catching me," he said. 

"I thought, 'it's on here'. I thought if I could back them into each other they would dog fight against themselves, which is what ended up happening. 

"The best part was getting to do burnouts [at the finish], that was sick."

It was a strong showing for the Holden teams, Brad Jones Racing pair Nick Percat and Todd Hazelwood and Team 18's Scott Pye rounding out the top six.

Cameron Waters was the best-placed Mustang in seventh ahead of Chaz Mostert and the in-form Anton De Pasquale. The Race 1 and 2 winner looked to have exhausted his limited tyre bank ahead of the final race and struggled for grip, particularly in the second stint.

Van Gisbergen continues to lead Whincup in the standings by 337 points, and also holds a 43-point lead over De Pasquale in the $25,000 Sydney Cup.

There are two races left in the Sydney swing.

Race results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Gap
1	9	Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB
2	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	0.281
3	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	0.522
4	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	6.468
5	14	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	7.413
6	20	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	12.169
7	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	13.584
8	25	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	15.005
9	11	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	16.128
10	5	Jack Le Brocq	Ford Mustang GT	20.193
11	99	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	22.603
12	17	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	22.778
13	44	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	24.005
14	2	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	25.623
15	96	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	31.287
16	34	Jake Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	36.550
17	35	Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore ZB	36.551
18	22	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	37.599
19	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	38.308
20	3	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	38.644
21	4	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	38.718
22	19	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore ZB	41.692
23	26	Luke Youlden	Ford Mustang GT	44.392
24	7	Andre Heimgartner	Ford Mustang GT	46.693
View full results