This was not supposed to be Brodie Kostecki’s year. Not back in the off-season, when the reigning Supercars champion was deep in a protracted dispute with Erebus Motorsport.
Not when he sat out the opening rounds of the 2024 series at Bathurst and Albert Park as the bitter standoff raged on, and was replaced by Todd Hazelwood.
Not even when he returned to the wheel of the Chevrolet Camaro for April’s event at Taupo, and spent the following months fighting a losing battle to get to the top of the grid.
Even in September, when his long-rumoured 2025 move to Dick Johnson Racing was publicly confirmed, there was a sense that the 26-year-old’s final four rounds of this series might fall victim to the relentless distraction of the whole saga.
That theory gained ground last month, when he and his now co-driver Hazelwood failed to finish the Sandown 500, and again earlier this week when he dealt with illness, not to mention the nerves and tyre trouble en route to claiming Saturday’s top-10 shootout and pole position for a second consecutive year.
Turns out it that hypothesis was more a product of external speculation than hard evidence, because Kostecki said he and the Erebus team came to Mount Panorama with the odd feeling they were going to win.
Bathurst winners Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood.Credit: Getty Images
They clearly knew better because, in the fastest Bathurst 1000 of all time – interrupted by nothing for five of the six hours, when the first and only safety car enacted a full course reset to set up one of the more insane sprint finishes – the Kostecki-Hazelwood duo led from start to finish to claim their first Peter Brock Trophy.
“We’ll fill the trophy with some Chiko rolls tonight,” Hazelwood said. “That’s probably job number one.”
Even once Kostecki had beaten Broc Feeney and co-driver Jamie Whincup to the chequered flag (their Red Bull teammates Will Brown and Scott Pye placed third), and brought his vehicle to a stop, the Western Australian remained in the car.
He stuck gloved fingers through the visor of his helmet to mop up tears, and continued to sit there even when Feeney came to congratulate him. Eventually, he was yanked out by co-driver Hazelwood, who had just spent the preceding 30 seconds telling the Channel Seven broadcast that “I think I’m hallucinating” and “when you win Bathurst it makes up for everything”.
Kostecki, Hazelwood and the Erebus team soak up their new King of the Mountain status.Credit: Getty Images
Hazelwood could have been referring to the fact he himself had just won his maiden Supercars championship race, at the Bathurst 1000, in his 195th start. (“I hate that stat,” he said later. “That was certainly burning in the back of my mind.”)
The 29-year-old South Australian could have been talking about his family, who remortgaged their house and cooked countless fundraising sausage sizzles to help him get his start. (“To win The Great Race is a nice return.”)
But he could equally have been citing the trials and tribulations of his primary driver, who, five years after succumbing to a carbon dioxide poisoning scare at his Bathurst 1000 debut as a 21-year-old, had just become only the fifth this century to win it from pole position.
“It’s redemption from last year for sure,” Kostecki said, recalling that second-place finish from pole. “I’m just in awe. Broc was breathing down my neck the whole time, and there were 32 or 31 shootout laps that were balls to the walls the whole time.
“It’s kind of funny around here. If you bring your pace back a little bit, you can actually get yourself into trouble. I just knew that if I did shootout laps every single lap I wouldn’t make a mistake.”
Kostecki skirted around questions about the politics and drama regarding Erebus, save for saying he never doubted his ability and confirming that time does heal all wounds. “Yeah, I think so,” he said. “It’s one of those things, and we just won Bathurst, so I just can’t thank the crew enough, and we’ll celebrate tonight.”
The scene at Mount Panorama on Sunday.Credit: Getty Images
It was wild that, in a race of near-unprecedented intensity, safety-car intervention was not required until lap 132, when Matt Payne could not downshift and ran into the concrete wall at The Cutting just as the field drove into the pits before the last stop of the day.
Until then, betting enthusiasts who took a chance on the no safety cars option paying $101 would have been feeling incredibly lucky. Since the safety car was introduced at the Bathurst 1000 in 1987, only twice – in 1989 and 1991 – has one not been required.
Kostecki and Hazelwood celebrate their victory with a shoey.Credit: Getty Images
This unusually clean day, with its steady top two slightly separated from the rest for almost five hours, had everyone at their absolute limit. It featured, as Whincup said afterwards, “no brain fades or silly mistakes”.
Kostecki spent the opening 28 laps holding off several menacing passing attempts from Feeney, before opening up a 19-second lead. Even as Feeney and Whincup slowly but surely chipped away at that deficit, the advantage appeared relatively clear.
That was until the safety car procedure set up a sprint finish from the restart with 27 laps to go, and the contest became one of micro-margins.
Kostecki and Feeney traded fastest laps of the day (Feeney ultimately won this battle with a 2:07.861 on lap 42), as rubber burned under the frenzied beating and teams got more fresh tyres ready just in case.
A 0.7-second deficit crept out to 1.2 seconds with nine laps to go, and then 1.5 seconds with four remaining, before Kostecki finally crossed the finish line with 1.35 seconds up his sleeve.
It is the best Bathurst finish for Feeney from five attempts, but Whincup’s attempt to break his 12-year-long Bathurst drought fell just short.
“I drove my heart out, I didn’t leave anything on the table,” Feeney said. “These guys next to me, Brodie and Todd, absolutely killed it today. They were faultless. We’ll be back one day. We’ll get up on the top step.”
The podium finish helped Feeney knock off Chaz Mostert for second in the standings, behind Brown by 204 points with two races remaining. Mostert finished fifth, while fourth-placed Cam Waters was fourth fastest.
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