Supercars title contender Broc Feeney has suffered a blow after being spun by Tickford’s Thomas Randle in a fiery conclusion to the second and final race of the weekend in Tasmania.
Randle’s teammate Cam Waters ran away with the victory but drama unfolded behind him late as Randle battled with Feeney and his Triple Eight teammate Will Brown.
Randle was fighting Brown for second when he was pushed out onto the grass at the exit of the last corner with 10 laps to go.
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Furious over the radio, Randle could only watch as Feeney drove by into third place.
The battle raged on and with five laps to go Randle locked his left front heading into the hairpin and hammered into the left rear of Feeney.
Randle appeared to attempt to let Feeney through but the chasing pack caused both to tumble down the order, settling into sixth and 11th respectively.
Randle, who started on pole but lost the lead to Waters on lap one, received a 15-second penalty and finished 18th, smashing the steering wheel in frustration.
Feeney finished 15th and now sits third in the championship, 81 points behind Chaz Mostert and a whopping 198 points behind the leading Brown.
Randle was pictured after the chequered flag with his head in his hands — “disconsolate and distressed,” Neil Crompton said in commentary — while being supported by his team before belatedly getting out of the car.
Randle sought out Feeney for an apology but he was pushed out of the Triple Eight garage by team manager Mark Dutton before team principal Jamie Whincup agreed to set up a meeting.
“I just wanted to apologise to Broc but I think he’d gone in the truck. I think they’re going to grab him and I’ll apologise, that’s all I can really do,” Randle said.
“Dutto’s got some invisible line there. Jamie was fine, he was all good.”
Randle had fronted up afterwards to own up to his costly blunder on track.
“Just gutted with my mistake. That was all my fault, so got no one else to blame but myself and I’ll be kicking myself over that one for a while,” he said.
“A real shame because we had a good chance to capitalise on some good points. Happy for Cam to get the win, clearly had the speed, just doesn’t feel real that that’s just happened.”
Randle felt justified racing Brown hard but regretted that he ended up colliding with Feeney.
“We were racing pretty hard, Will likes to bump and run so I just did what he likes to do at the hairpin,” Randle said.
“He was pushing me hard to the grass at the exit, wasn’t happy about that but what happened there with Feeney that was totally my fault.
“Probably should’ve got the move done properly on Will and all this would’ve been avoided.”
Mark Skaife said the incident “robbed” the race of a “very interesting battle” for the podium positions behind Waters.
“It looked like Feeney had pace on Will Brown and Thomas had pace on both of them,” he said.
“It was going to be one of those — if (Randle) doesn’t make a mistake, he might be on the podium as a consequence of that genuine pace he was showing.”
Crompton added: “It was all a bit mystifying, that moment down at the hairpin. He’s locked it late and just bombed it in there.
“But there was already all that aggression early on, there was some pretty wild stuff. Not uncommon, particularly when there’s a bit of push and shove.”
Brown held on to finish second while Bryce Fullwood capped off a fine weekend for Brad Jones Racing when he leapt into third as a result of the Randle-Feeney collision.