Brodie Kostecki completes weekend sweep at The Bend
Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki completed a dominant clean sweep of the Supercars weekend at The Bend to consolidate his championship points lead.
Starting on the front-row for both of Sunday’s races – a pole and a second – Kostecki got the better of Tickford Racing’s Thomas Randle in race two before fending off Cam Waters in the final encounter.
It means Kostecki now holds an increased points margin over Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen of 137 points heading into the start of the Enduros in Sandown.
Race 2
Tickford’s Thomas Randle put in a sensational lap in morning qualifying to take pole position but, just like in the opening race of the weekend, the cleaner side of the track benefitted the second-placed car on the run towards turn one.
That gave Kostecki the advantage after the pair both got even starts off the line, with Randle slotting into second.
Further around the first lap, Jack Le Brocq was once again in the wars, causing a multi-car incident for the second successive day. He tagged the rear of Cameron Waters’ Mustang which in turn put Will Davison’s Shell V Power DJR car into a spin.
Waters and Le Brocq suffered steering issues and had to pit while Davison continued with damage.
Randle chased Kostecki hard in the early stages, staying within a second of the Camaro before making his compulsory pit-stop on the ninth lap of 20.
Kostecki pitted at the end of the next lap and came back out just ahead of Randle, who also had the Grove Racing Mustang of David Reynolds and Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen for company.
The outlier of sorts was Chaz Mostert, who stayed out longer to attempt the overcut. The Walkinshaw Andretti United Mustang came in on lap 12 and rejoined sixth, albeit on much fresher tyres, which he used to vault past Matt Payne, van Gisbergen and Reynolds to take third at the finish.
At the front, Kostecki kept his cool and duly led home Randle by just over a second, with Reynolds trailing Mostert home in fourth. Van Gisbergen completed the top five, while Kostecki’s Erebus team-mate Will Brown could only manage 13th.
Race 3
Kostecki topped qualifying from no fewer than five Mustangs as Ford otherwise dominated the top 10 on the grid, but it was the polesitter who got the best start and led into turn one from a fast-starting Nick Percat.
Fellow front-row starter Waters got a shocker and dropped to fourth behind Randle but forced his way into third with a panel-rubbing move at turn six.
Waters wasted little time in getting past Percat to take up the chase of leader Kostecki, while Randle also muscled his way ahead of Percat on lap seven.
Percat was the first of the leading group to make his pit-stop, with Randle pitting a lap later from third.
Kostecki, meanwhile, was putting the hammer down and set the fastest lap of the race to extend his margin over Waters to 1.7s before his own pit-stop, after which he rejoined comfortably in front.
Waters closed in on Kostecki in the closing stages but the Camaro held on firm to complete the clean sweep of the weekend by just under a second.
Randle was third ahead of Percat and van Gisbergen while Davison led Shell V Power DJR team-mate Anton de Pasquale home in sixth. James Courtney was seventh ahead of Mostert, who had a dicey battle with Broc Feeney in the closing stages, with Le Brocq completing the top 10.
Feeney was unlucky to miss out on a top 10 finish, having produced a strong race. He muscled past Mostert on the main straight, after being forced onto the grass before taking a hit from Mostert in the rear at turn two.
