Kostecki beats Waters in thrilling Bathurst Shootout | Supercars
Brodie Kostecki beats Cam Waters in thrilling Bathurst Shootout
Reigning champion sixth driver to claim consecutive Bathurst poles
Kostecki secures first pole position since Adelaide 2023
Brodie Kostecki has created Repco Bathurst 1000 history in a thrilling Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout, denying Cam Waters to secure back-to-back Great Race poles.
The reigning champion, who soared to pole position 12 months ago, became just the sixth driver in history to claim consecutive Bathurst pole positions.
Kostecki's stunning lap ensures the exclusive club of back-to-back pole winners, comprised of Allan Moffat, Peter Brock, Kevin Bartlett, Mark Skaife and Garth Tander, now has a new member.
The Erebus Motorsport driver become the 10th different pole winner in 20 attempts this season, with Kostecki scoring his first P1 start since his championship-clinching weekend in Adelaide last November.
"I wasn't sure if I was going to get it, it wasn't the best lap I've done around here, but the car has been stellar all weekend," said Kostecki, who has podiums in two of the last three Great Races.
"We've just been focusing on ourselves, everyone in the whole crew has been working really hard. We can't start better than this so heads down for tomorrow and Todd has been fantastic to work with.
"It's just heads down for tomorrow, tomorrow is a long day, we've got to minimise our mistakes and we'll see how it goes."
Kostecki was peerless in a one-lap dash headlined by troubles for several drivers, with Heimgartner's Great Race Shootout debut coming unstuck at the first corner. Payne, meanwhile, grazed the wall coming down the Mountain.
Under setting skies in Bathurst, Stanaway kicked off the Shootout with a slide at Hell Corner, but polished off his lap to set a 2:05.9286s.
De Pasquale (2:06.2385s) and Le Brocq (2:06.1827s) didn't have enough for the Penrite Ford, with Heimgartner failing to lay down a competitive time at all after his mistake.
Mostert, a two-time Bathurst pole winner, went fastest across the top of the Mountain, but ended up a whopping 0.6125s off Stanaway's pace.
Brown didn't have enough either, setting a 2:06.1625s, but managed to claim a provisional front row start ahead of the final four runners.
Battling a suspected virus, Kostecki again emerged peerless across the top of the Mountain, putting a whopping 0.4167s on Stanaway with a 2:05.5119s.
Feeney stayed with Kostecki across the first two sectors, but had to settle for second with a 2:05.8618s, leaving Waters and Payne standing in the way of history.
Waters tried and fought, but fell short by 0.1310s. Payne, meanwhile, clipped the Forrest's Elbow wall and ended up sixth, sealing pole for Kostecki.
"It was actually a bit hard of a lap to be honest, I had a really bad tyre vibration, it was really hard coming onto Conrod [Straight]," added Kostecki, who scooped $15,000 for pole.
"I was starting to get double vision from the vibrations, I struggled to pull it up, got both lock lights at one point.
"It's just stellar work from the whole crew, and to get this pole for them. Like I said it's a long day tomorrow, we'll get back to work and focus on tomorrow."
