Feature: Broc Feeney’s big step up

Repco Supercars Championship rookie Broc Feeney has swept all the age records before him: youngest Toyota 86 Series race winner, youngest Super3 Series champion and youngest Super2 Series winner. So, as he replaces seven-time champion Jamie Whincup at Triple Eight Race Engineering, how long will it be before he’s knocking on the door of a main game title? We interview Feeney for the cover feature of SupercarXtra Magazine issue #124.

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Ninteen-year-old prodigy Feeney hopes his Super2 Series championship win in 2021 has proved to any doubters that he’s at Triple Eight Race Engineering for a reason in 2022, as he steps into one of the best seats on the grid for his full-time main game debut. 

“I said if I win the Super2 championship, I think that I should be deserving to move up,” he says. 

“I wanted to go out as a worthy champion. I’m not here to make up the numbers; I’m here to win races, and that was my whole goal, to win as many races as I could and to wrap up the championship. I know that RD (Roland Dane) has been very good to me in giving me a massive opportunity, and so have many people.”

The Queenslander’s meteoric rise to the Repco Supercars Championship has led a minority to question whether it’s all happened too fast, but his incredible results and record speed have led to plenty of new fans as well.

“To be honest, I don’t really see too many haters out there; a lot of people have supported me, especially being a young kid,” he says. 

“Plenty of people have come up to me and have been very good. I didn’t want to go into this year as the runner-up because that was my last chance to be the Super2 champion. So, once it all got announced, my mindset did change. My whole goal was winning the championship. It hopefully showed the people who perhaps did have a bit of doubt that I’ve got that seat for a reason.”

Despite his clear confidence, maturity and speed for a young man, Feeney responds without hesitation when asked whether the doubters have impacted him in any way. 

“Not at all; I know what my job is,” he says. “I don’t let anyone outside affect that. I just want to show that I think I’m very worthy of the seat I’ve got this year. I know the team around me believes that as well. Hopefully a few other people can believe that now too.”

Feeney was introduced to motorsport through his father Paul, who raced on two wheels in the 1970s and 1980s, with the Gold Coast-born youngster picking up motorbikes at the age of just three. 

Feeney switched to karts at age nine and subsequently went on to win the 2017 Australian Karting Championship in the KA2 class and claimed podium honours in prestigious international events, the SuperNationals in Las Vegas and the ROK Cup in Italy.

At just 15, Feeney moved into cars and became the youngest race winner in the Toyota 86 Series, but had to miss the Bathurst round because he was 11 days’ shy of the minimum age of 16 to race at the Mount Panorama Circuit. 

The age records kept on tumbling and in 2019 Feeney become the youngest driver to win the Super3 Series title against a competitive field, taking a pole position and race win in the opening round in his introduction to a V8. 

Feeney’s meteoric rise at such a young age has seen comparisons to other drivers like three-time champion Scott McLaughlin and Triple Eight Race Engineering legend Craig Lowndes, who holds the youngest main game champion record at just 21 years and 11 months.

“I saw a social media post that if I won the championship, I’d beat Scotty’s (McLaughlin) record as the youngest ever winner in Super2,” he recalls. 

“In 2018 I was the youngest ever Toyota 86 race winner. In 2019 I was the youngest ever Super3 champion, and now to be the youngest ever Super2 champion is a very cool stat to have. 

“To be beating Scotty’s records at the moment is very cool. It has been super quick for me, but I knew that it had to be. The budget had a cap on it. It was sort of my last crack at it, so to get it done has been awesome for me. 

“I knew it was my last chance of winning the Super2 championship, and I wanted that trophy next to the Super3 one. So now there is just one vacant space… hopefully I’ll carry that record of youngest champion over to the main game.” 

Feeney is another driver who’s benefited from the tutelage of talent spotter and 2014 Bathurst 1000 winner Paul Morris, along with the likes of Anton De Pasquale and Brodie Kostecki. Feeney is also a good friend of Nash Morris, the son of Paul and 2021 Super3 Series champion. 

“It’s been awesome; me and Nash have grown up together, went to school together and we’re like brothers,” he says. 

“We’re in the gym every morning. We said that the goal is to both be champions, myself in Super2 and Nash in Super3. So, to be both standing up there together at Bathurst, it’s awesome. It’s been so good to see him do it, and I’ve got no doubt he’ll be up here with the Super2 trophy.”

Feeney acknowledges that his relationship with the Morris family and Paul Morris’ willingness to assist has greatly assisted his quick rise. 

“Three and a half years ago Paul picked me up from my house and took me out to Norwell (Motorplex) and taught me how to drive a manual,” he says. 

“From then on we’ve won a Super3 championship, a Super2 championship and are moving on to the main game. The group of people that I’ve got around me are so special to me. We’re a very tight group and the opportunities they’ve given me, and everything that’s happened over the past few years, we’ve got through so quick.

“Stepping up to the main game at only 19 years of age is pretty special, especially in the team that I’m in. It’s a massive credit to the people that have been around me and the people that have supported me. I knew that I’d never step up if I didn’t have their support. The whole goal was to win the Super2 championship, and I knew if I did they’d be ready for me in the main game.”

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