Interview with Supercars driver Broc Feeney

Imagine replacing Muhammad Ali. Or Mick Jagger. That’s the daunting scenario debutante Broc Feeney is facing when he replaces the imperious Jamie Whincup, statistically Supercars GOAT, for 2022. While 38-year-old Whincup polarises fans, his staggering success is undeniable: the most championships, wins, fastest laps, podiums and four Bathurst victories. No other driver comes close, so is teenage Feeney ‘The New Whincup’?

“I’m not comparing myself to anyone; I want to be Broc Feeney!” says the Gold Coast born-and-raised teenager only half-jokingly. “Hopefully one day I can say that I won a championship, and hopefully a Bathurst 1000.”

Speaking to Wheels, Feeney exudes a confidence and maturity yet with pleasant youthful enthusiasm. There’s self-belief, sure, yet no arrogance about him, despite his conquering all-comers to land the most coveted race seat in this country.

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Broc Feeney was born on October 18th, 2002 – the same year Whincup made his Supercars debut – and spent his 18th birthday driving to 10th place at his first Bathurst 1000. The name Broc, by the way, is derived from his mother’s maiden name, not a tribute to the late, great Peter Brock. The young racer gets that question a lot.

The younger of two boys, Broc’s racing obsession was fostered by parents, Paul and Sue. Paul Feeney was a successful motorcycle racer in his own right with ties to the racing community including one Casey Stoner, who, among other riders, had a huge influence on Broc’s approach to his own racing. “My parents met at a racetrack, so it’s always been a part of my life, riding my bike around the workshop and racing since I was three or four on my PeeWee 50,” Feeney says.

The switch from two wheels to four came after a family holiday to Thailand when Broc was nine.

“We discovered the local kart-hire track and basically never left,” he recalls. Back home, a come-and-try day at Ipswich saw his first kart purchase and the transition was complete. Overseas success followed.

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“I was used to go-karting every weekend. I was doing the 86 series and I thought, ‘Far out, I get only six races this year’, so I started thinking about what else we could do to get my bum in a seat.”

At barely 15 years of age, Broc’s potential road to Supercars was mapped out with mentor, Bathurst winner turned Supercars-talent whisperer Paul Morris. It meant getting behind the wheel of a car for the first time, with Morris showing the youngster the ropes before any bad habits could develop. Coaching from fellow graduates of Morris’s talent program saw the likes of Anton De Pasquale, now with Dick Johnson Racing (DJR), for young Broc to lean on, too. “Whatever Paul’s doing, it works,” Feeney says.

The 86 Series was a logical step for 2018, Feeney becoming the youngest ever race winner, and taking sixth in the championship despite missing the Bathurst round as he was an agonising 11 days short of the minimum age of 16. There was another issue, though. “I was used to go-karting every weekend. I was doing the 86 series and I thought, ‘Far out, I get only six races this year’, so I started thinking about what else we could do to get my bum in a seat.”

In shades of his 2022 team-mate Shane van Gisbergen, if it had a steering wheel, Feeney was keen. He made cameos in Aussie Racing Cars, defeated one Lando Norris to claim the first wild-card victory in Supercar’s 2019 E-Series and scored a class win at the 2020 Bathurst 12-hour.

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In 2019 Feeney rocked the Super3 series, where he won from pole on debut, scoring 12 podiums in 15 races as the youngest ever Super3 champion. The performance was enough to get him Supercar tests with both Erebus and DJR, where he shone, earning him a spot in Super2 with Tickford for 2020 and his Bathurst birthday drive.

A switch to Triple Eight for 2021 Super2 series has seen Feeney dominate, rewarded with a wild-card Bathurst entry alongside two-time winner, Russell Ingall, before being confirmed as Whincup’s heir. Yet he’s acutely aware that despite the on-paper promise, future success will not be instant, nor is it guaranteed.

He reluctantly says he’s targeting modest progress with Top 10s in 2022, with no better yardstick than the in-form and perennial winner van Gisbergen, a salivating intra-team contest in itself.

“I’m coming into a team where they’re used to winning championships and winning a lot of races, and they don’t want that to change,” he says. “I’m not going to stop until I’m winning races and trying to win championships. I know that’s going to be a long process, but I won’t stop until I do it.”

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The Next ‘Brocky’?

Kart blanche

Feeney’s pace in a kart saw him become five-times Queensland champion. His karting zenith came in 2017 as he took the National KA2 title, became the first Australian to stand on the podium at the ROK Cup International Final in Italy and finished second at the highly regarded SuperNationals in Las Vegas. “I lost that one by 0.04sec, so I’d love another crack at it,” the hot-shoe admits.

Born to excel

Feeney also entered the Hyundai Excel series, where he first met Roland Dane, the beginning of a relationship that culminated in his 2022 promotion. He continued to race the Hyundai even as he progressed through Super3 and Super2 development categories.

Young leader?

Craig Lowndes remains the youngest driver to lead The Great Race, at 19 years, four months and 11 days, but with Feeney turning 19 only 17 days before this year’s race (based on Bathurst’s revised December 5 date), that’s a record the young Triple Eight driver could well make his own.