Photo: supercars.com

Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood claims maiden Bathurst 1000 victory

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The Erebus Motorsport pair of Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood claimed their maiden lights-to-flag victory in the 2024 Bathurst 1000 race of the Supercars Championship.

The Chevrolet duo started from pole and controlled the race from then on, with the Triple Eight duo of Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup being their closest threat.

There was just one safety car session in the 1000 kilometre race when Grove Racing driver Matt Payne went off at The Cutting.

The field was released with 27 laps remaining, with no major changes at the top.

The second Triple Eight Chevrolet of Will Brown with co-driver Scott Pye could not match the top two in the final sprint, dropping behind to finish third, close to 14 seconds from the leaders.

The top Ford Mustang pair was the one of Tickford Racing with Cameron Waters and James Moffat coming home in fourth, right ahead of the Walkinshaw Andretti United pair Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth.

Dick Johnson Racing’s pair of Anton De Pasquale and Tony D’Alberto looked set to be the top Ford Mustang drivers, but a lengthy final pit stop meant that they dropped out of the top five to finish seventh behind James Golding.

Kostecki/Hazelwood won the race by 1.4 seconds over Feeney/Whincup and the Erebus Motorsport duo was over the moon to clinch their first Bathurst 1000 victory.

“Honestly I can’t believe it, this guy here did a great job the whole weekend, I knew we had a fast car, we just didn’t quite chase it enough there towards the end,” said Kostecki.

“George [Commins, Race Engineer] tuned it up for the end there, and we just had enough to stay in front of Broc. Big thank you to the whole team and Chiko, they came onboard for this round and I dare say they got their coverage.

“I can’t believe it, I just want to say thank you to everyone on my side, and also on Car #9, George my engineer and Tom [Moore] from the other car. I just can’t believe it, I’m just in awe at the moment.”

The 2024 Bathurst 1000 race became the fastest ever on five hours, 58 minutes and three seconds, 1.44 minutes faster than the previous record from 2018 – a race won by Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards.

Brown is still the championship leader, now heading Feeney by 204 points and Mostert by 225 points.

The next Supercars Championship race is the Gold Coast 500 on October 25-27.