Kostecki roars to back-to-back Bathurst 1000 poles
COMETH the hour, cometh the man.
In what can only be described as an odd year for Brodie Kostecki, everything has been building towards a shot at Repco Bathurst 1000 glory.
Now, he and co-driver Todd Hazelwood are in the box seat after the #1 Chiko Camaro snared pole position.
THE GRID: Where every car will start the 2024 Bathurst 1000
SPOTTER GUIDE: What every car looks like at the 2024 Bathurst 1000
SCHEDULE: Repco Bathurst 1000 track schedule for every category
With track temperatures cooling in the late afternoon sun, times were all set to drop as drivers soaked up the ultimate spotlight: having a lap of the Mountain to themselves.
Richie Stanaway kicked things off in stellar fashion, posting a 2m05.9286s – considerably faster than the time which yesterday snuck him into the Shootout.
That performance was too much for Anton De Pasquale or Jack Le Brocq to match, before attention turned to another Kiwi: Andre Heimgartner making his long-awaited first Bathurst 1000 Top 10 Shootout appearance.
It was all but over in a matter of seconds however, the Brad Jones Racing spearhead running off at Hell Corner.
“I feel like a bit of an idiot but that’s what you get,” Heimgartner reported during his cooldown lap.
“The times out here are pretty speedy so you have got to push it sometimes and I just overstepped it. Bit of a stuff up on my part.”
When Chaz Mostert and Will Brown also failed to knock Stanaway off his perch, it was apparent just how strong that initial benchmark had been – especially the Grove Racing driver’s first sector.
“It’s pretty awesome. I did a Shootout here at Round 1 but it’s obviously not quite as special as doing one at the 1000!” Stanaway said on the broadcast upon returning to the pits.
“Pretty special experience, hope to do many more in the future. All day you’re a bit nervous about it, lingering there at the end of the day.”
Four drivers remained standing in the way of Stanaway and a last-to-first pole: Kostecki, Broc Feeney, Cam Waters, and his teammate Matt Payne.
Finally, Stanaway was dislodged as Kostecki set an accurate, magical lap to go more than four tenths clear on a 2m05.5119s.
Feeney and Waters did enough to squeeze ahead of Stanaway too, but had no answer to the 2023 champion, the Tickford pilot securing a front-row start.
There was one more dose of drama to come; Payne tagging the wall at Forrest’s Elbow to lose six spots versus his provisional grid slot.
So, the front five rows of the grid for the Great Race will line up: Kostecki and Waters, Feeney and Stanaway, Brown and Le Brocq, Payne and De Pasquale, Mostert and Heimgartner.
A 20-minute warm-up tomorrow morning will precede the 11:30am race start.
RESULTS: Top 10 Shootout, Repco Bathurst 1000 (1 lap) PosNo.DriverTeamCarTime11Brodie KosteckiErebusChevrolet2m05.5119s26Cam WatersTickfordFord+0.1310s388Broc FeeneyTriple EightChevrolet+0.3499s426Richie StanawayGroveFord+0.4167s587Will BrownTriple EightChevrolet+0.6506s69Jack Le BrocqErebusChevrolet+0.6708s719Matt PayneGroveFord+0.7254s811Anton De PasqualeDJRFord+0.7266s925Chaz MostertWAUFord+1.0292s108Andre HeimgartnerBJRChevrolet+8.5795s
