Kostecki fends off Feeney for maiden Bathurst win | Supercars
Brodie Kostecki denies Broc Feeney to claim Bathurst win
Kostecki, Todd Hazelwood score maiden Great Race victories
Will Brown third ahead of Ford stars Cam Waters, Chaz Mostert
Reigning Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki has outlasted Broc Feeney to claim a fairytale maiden victory in the Repco Bathurst 1000.
The two rising stars were the main acts in what emerged as a two-horse race, with Kostecki and co-driver Todd Hazelwood defeating Feeney and Jamie Whincup, who claimed his first Bathurst podium in 11 years.
A remarkable green flag seemed destined to deliver Kostecki a dominant victory, before a crash for Matt Payne on lap 132 bunched the field together.
After the restart, a stunning display of Supercars racing saw Kostecki beat his Triple Eight rival, with no other driver able to lay a finger on the two Camaros in a record-breaking race.
For Erebus Motorsport, it was an emotional second Great Race victory in what has proved a turbulent and winless season, with Kostecki absent from the first round of the season in Bathurst back in February.
A 27-lap run home saw the #1 Chiko Camaro and #88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro set fastest lap after fastest lap, each trying to force each other to crack. Instead, Kostecki was peerless, racing away to deliver the coveted Peter Brock Trophy to Erebus and Hazelwood.
"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," an emotional Kostecki said.
"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."
Additionally, with a finish percentage of 96.1 percent, the race also broke the previous record of 92.3 percent, also set in 2018. There were also 20 cars on the lead lap, also beating the previous record of 19.
Heading to the Gold Coast, Brown has an extended 204-point championship lead over Feeney, while Mostert is 225 back with 600 remaining.
There was a tense moment for Moffat and Holdsworth, who were forced to fight past the lapped Matt Chahda wildcard, which ironically lost several laps due to an earlier clash with Mostert.
Le Brocq handed over to Jayden Ojeda on lap 83, with Craig Lowndes and James Golding coming in on the following lap.
Kostecki stopped on the next lap with a handsome 19-second lead, with Whincup following in the leader and handing over to Feeney. Wood and Holdsworth, meanwhile, swapped for Stanaway and Mostert.
Pye took over from Brown on lap 86, with Waters swapping Moffat out of the Monster Mustang. By lap 88, Kostecki led Feeney by 16 seconds, with Pye 16 seconds down. Ojeda was nine seconds behind Pye, with D’Alberto, Garth Tander, Russell, Stanaway, Lowndes, Kai Allen, Waters and Mostert completing the top 12.
Waters and Mostert began to march forward, first dropping Allen. Then, the three Fords moved up when Lowndes locked up and fired off down the Murray’s Corner escape road.
At the 100-lap mark, Hazelwood led Feeney by 11.8s, with the former losing time trying to put Bryce Fullwood a lap down. Behind them, Russell ran off at The Chase and gifted eighth and ninth to Waters and Mostert, who were hunting the two Penrite Mustangs.
On lap 109, Waters caught and passed Stanaway for sixth, with Lowndes' rookie co-driver Cooper Murray taking over from Lowndes for the final 53 laps. Tander handed to Payne from fifth on lap 110, and Ojeda to Le Brocq from fourth on lap 111.
With a 10.7s lead, Hazelwood handed over to Kostecki on lap 114, with Feeney following him in. As Pye took the lead, Kostecki emerged with an 11-second margin over Feeney, with Stanaway and Mostert pitting later around the lap. Stanaway and Mostert rejoined, with Payne slotting in between the two Fords.
Pye handed over to Brown with 46 laps remaining, with Waters also stopping. By the time the penultimate stops were complete, Kostecki led Feeney by 10 seconds, with Brown 41.2s behind Feeney. Le Brocq, Waters, Stanaway, Payne, Mostert, Murray and De Pasquale rounded out the top 10.
As Feeney began to close on Kostecki, bringing the margin under eight seconds on lap 125, attention focused on the battle for seventh, with Mostert pushing Payne into an error at Murray's Corner. Mostert got by into Hell Corner, and copped a tap from Murray behind. Later around the lap, Murray clipped the wall into McPhillamy Park, but survived without damage.
Feeney took a second off Kostecki on lap 125, and wiped another 0.4s away on the next lap. On lap 127, Feeney was over a second faster, with the margin dipping below five seconds.
Feeney marched on, taking a further 0.4s off Kostecki on lap 129, before the leader responded on lap 130 with a near identical time.
Then, the race turned on its head as Payne slid out of eighth and into the wall at The Cutting, much like Pye's incident on Thursday afternoon. With the Penrite Ford stricken trackside, the bp pulse Safety Car was deployed for the first and ultimately sole time.
All drivers took the opportunity to stop under yellow, but the biggest loser was Le Brocq, who stopped before the yellow and dropped from fourth to eighth. Behind the Safety Car, Kostecki led Feeney, Brown, Waters, Stanaway, Mostert, Murray, Le Brocq, Golding and De Pasquale.
Kostecki led the field to green on lap 135, and Feeney went with the leader. Behind them, Murray's race was ruined by a pit lane penalty over a Safety Car procedure breach. As Murray peeled into pit lane, Mostert muscled past Stanaway at The Chase for fifth, and set after Waters.
Under pressure, Kostecki powered in the fastest lap of the race, a 2:08.1449s, on lap 138. Determined to stay with the #1, Feeney went even quicker on the following lap with a 2:08.0903s.
Kostecki and Feeney continued to show their mettle, Kostecki powering in a 2:07.9984s on lap 140, with Feeney responding on lap 141 with a 2:07.9200s. On lap 142, the duo both cracked 2:07.8s laps, before Kostecki slowly began to pull away.
However, try as he might, Feeney was unable to disrupt the steely attention of Kostecki, who took the chequered flag by the official margin of 1.3496s.
Golding/Russell came home sixth ahead of De Pasquale/D'Alberto, Le Brocq/Ojeda, Stanaway/Wood and Cameron Hill/Cameron Crick. Matt Stone Racing driver Hill benefited from a late error at Hell Corner by Ryan Wood to claim the final position in the top 10.
