Bathurst 1000: Brodie Kostecki storms to provisional pole
Brodie Kostecki stormed to provisional pole, with the series leader hopeful his team can find more pace across the weekend, leaving his Ford rivals to pray for a miracle to bridge the gap.
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Championship leader Brodie Kostecki is hopeful he can find even more pace for the top-10 shootout after storming to provisional pole for the Bathurst 1000 as Ford’s fastest qualifier predicted he would need a “miracle” to catch him.
In an incident-packed session with shunts prompting two early red flags, Kostecki delivered a blistering qualifying performance to book his ticket to Saturday’s top-10 shootout in a day of mixed fortunes for Erebus Motorsport on Friday.
After early qualifying carnage, which claimed Kostecki’s Erebus teammate Will Brown when he crashed his Camaro into the tyre wall, the series leader demonstrated his superior pace to top qualifying with a 2:04.664 lap.
Kostecki set his time among a flurry of early flying laps following two early red flags and no one in the field was able to better it later the session.
The Erebus ace topped qualifying ahead of a career-best Supercars qualifying performance from PremiAir Racing’s James Golding and the Ford of Dick Johnson Racing’s Anton De Pasquale.
Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters and Triple Eight’s Sandown 500 winner Broc Feeney rounded out the qualifying top five.
Defending Bathurst 1000 champion Shane van Gisbergen pushed into seventh position with a flying lap at the very end of the session.
Kostecki will now start a favourite to secure pole position for the Great Race, in which he has finished third and fourth the last two years with his co-driver David Russell.
Having set his sights on completing a Bathurst 1000 and championship double this year, Kostecki was hopeful he could extract more speed from his Camaro.
“I think (there) may be a little bit more time in it,” Kostecki said.
“I am going to pull those belts pretty darn tight and have a go in the shootout. There is nothing better than seeing the whole mountain cheering you on.
“Going out is going to be really cool, so it will be up to me to do the job and the car has been awesome, so we will just stick to our guns and cross the next two sessions off and hopefully be there at the end.
“To do a really fast lap around here, you have to take a lot of risk and if you make a mistake, it’s definitely coming back on the tow-truck.
“It is a good positive to be last (out) and hopefully I can beat the time that’s on top at the time and it doesn’t matter how much you get pole by, it’s all about getting pole, it doesn’t matter the margin … hopefully I tick every box tomorrow and go into Sunday.”
The red flag is out AGAIN!
— Supercars (@supercars) October 6, 2023
Declan Fraser smacks into the wall at Reid Park.
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Grove Racing’s David Reynolds, his rookie teammate Matt Payne, dual Bathurst 1000 champion Chaz Mostert and DJR veteran Will Davison also booked tickets to the shootout.
After a week of parity debate, six Fords finished inside the top 10.
Ford this week had its push for parity change rejected ahead of the Bathurst 1000 because the parity trigger had not been hit.
Asked if Kostecki could be caught this weekend, Ford’s top qualifier De Pasquale said:
“Maybe, I don’t know. Unless something miracle happens to our thing overnight, not by us,” De Pasquale said after qualifying.
“But anything can happen come Sunday. It’s a long race, obviously the cars have got to survive first and do all that and get through it (with) no damage and everything. But if all goes clean, we will be trying our best.
Pressed more on the parity situation, De Pasquale said there remained a “gap” to the fastest Camaros, but he would just “get on with it” in a bid to chase a Bathurst trophy.
“There has been a pretty consistent big gap to the fastest of the other brands,” De Pasquale said.
“They are doing an amazing job, but I think we maximised our package today as well.
“Everyone knows what the situation is, but we can’t change it, so we just get on with it and we will run our race and hopefully we end up with a trophy.”
Brown was an early casualty in qualifying after he smashed into the tyre wall at turn two in the opening minutes, prompting a red flag.
The car was eventually freed and he was able to drive it back to the pits, but the Erebus crew faced a big job to repair it to get it back out again in the qualifying session.
The session had barely resumed after a 10-minute delay when it was red-flagged for a second time after Tickford Racing rookie Declan Fraser slammed the side of his Mustang into the concrete wall at Reid Park, buying Erebus more time to complete repairs.
Remarkably, Erebus had Brown’s car repaired and the Toowoomba pilot back out on track in less than half an hour, but his performance was hampered and he will start Sunday’s race from 17th position.
“It obviously wasn’t great to see Will go in. I think if he didn’t he would have been up here with myself, our cars have been quite fast all weekend,” Kostecki said.
“They’ll get it right tonight and get it sorted for the race.
“He has been pushing me all year so there is no reason why he won’t be there on Sunday.”
Golding said it was a major breakthrough for him and his team to book a place in the top-10 shootout.
“It definitely is a (big achievement) for me, it’s been something we have been really close to to get into the top-10 shootout at Bathurst a few times now,” Golding said.
“It’s certainly cool and I’m really looking forward to having the mountain to myself tomorrow for a lap and I’m just going to try and enjoy it.
“We have just been making baby steps as a team this year, it hasn’t been easy and I think it’s just come down to hard work. We are still building, but I think we are really starting to find our groove now.”
SUPERCARS BATHURST 1000 QUALIFYING
1. Brodie Kostecki (Erebus Motorsport/Chevrolet Camaro)
2. James Golding (PremiAir Racing/Chevrolet Camaro)
3. Anton De Pasquale (Dick Johnson Racing/Ford Mustang)
4. Cam Waters (Tickford Racing/Ford Mustang)
5. Broc Feeney (Triple Eight/Chevrolet Camaro)
6. David Reynolds (Grove Racing/Ford Mustang)
7. Shane van Gisbergen (Triple Eight/Chevrolet Camaro)
8. Matt Payne (Grove Racing/Ford Mustang)
9. Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United/Ford Mustang)
10. Will Davison (Dick Johnson Racing/Ford Mustang)
Erebus ace blows away rivals in final practice
Supercars championship leader Brodie Kostecki has laid down the challenge to his rivals after blowing the field away in the final hitout before qualifying for the Bathurst 1000.
After the Erebus Motorsport cars rolled out in strong form for Thursday’s first day on track, Kostecki dominated the fourth practice session at Mount Panorama on Friday to finish more than six-tenths of a second ahead of the rest of the field.
Kostecki produced a blistering 2:05.121 lap to top the final session ahead of Team 18’s Scott Pye (2:05.7526) and dual Bathurst 1000 champion Chaz Mostert.
The Erebus star’s hot practice-topping time came despite recording the fewest number of laps during the session.
Kostecki was sitting on top for most of the second half of the hour-long practice before he doubled down to improve on his best time at the very end of the session.
The pace stamps Kostecki as the favourite heading into qualifying to claim provisional pole for series-leading Erebus later on Friday.
Kostecki’s Erebus teammate Will Brown finished the session in 11th position.
Triple Eight’s defending Bathurst 1000 champion Shane van Gisbergen finished the session in 17th position after mistakes on his fast laps late in the session.
His Sandown 500-winning teammate Broc Feeney was ninth fastest.
After a week of parity dramas, there were five Fords inside the top 10 in the final practice session, with Mostert finishing ahead of Tickford’s Cam Waters, Grove Racing rookie Matt Payne and Dick Johnson Racing’s Anton De Pasquale.
Earlier, Grove Racing pair Payne and David Reynolds were first and second fastest in Friday’s opening practice session.
Can quirky streak deliver young gun’s biggest result?
Broc Feeney has earned a reputation as Supercars’ “Mr Sunday”, but the Triple Eight young gun knows there is one race win he needs to truly cement that title.
As his star continues to rise in the second season in Supercars, all of Feeney’s six career race wins have fallen on a Sunday.
But there is no bigger Sunday race on the Supercars calendar than the Bathurst 1000.
“If I can deliver on a Sunday, it’s certainly the one that I want to do,” Feeney said.
“It’s been pretty good to get a lot of wins on Sundays because normally the big races are on then, but one day I do want to get a win on a Saturday as well, but we’ll keep the name going while it suits.
“I said this earlier in the year, there are some very big races on Sundays later in the year.
“We got one the last time out (Sandown) so we’ll try and do it again.”
Ahead of his fourth Bathurst 1000, Feeney is one of the hot favourites for this year’s race at Mount Panorama after his stunning Sandown 500 win alongside his Triple Eight team boss and seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup last month.
Feeney, 20, became the youngest winner of the Sandown 500 to claim his first endurance crown and the biggest win of his fledgling Supercars career.
The Triple Eight star said the victory had boosted his confidence ahead of his Bathurst assault, in which he will team with Whincup for a second straight year.
“It was a big one for me, if you look back to Adelaide (500 last year), it felt like a big confidence booster for me and hopefully Sandown can do something similar,” Feeney said.
“It was obviously unreal and I think to win that way how it was at the end with the safety car made it a little extra special.
“I had such a good weekend, a lot of fun and the result came with it. We will just try to keep that momentum going, I mean I am still feeling the same as what I did at Sandown and we’ll try and keep the ball rolling at Bathurst.”
Feeney drew praise from Whincup for his maturity at the end of the race when he withheld the intense pressure of series leader Brodie Kostecki breathing down his neck.
The young star felt he was now well-equipped to withstand those pressure situations.
“If that was me maybe 12 months ago I don’t know … maybe I would not have been able to hang onto it,” Feeney said.
“I feel like I’ve been through those situation a few times over the last 12 months and every time you do it you just become better and better.
“I was happy with how we managed the race and to hang on at the end, for sure, there were laps where it got real tight and (Kostecki) was on my bumper, but I knew if I could hang on for three or four laps I would be pretty right and fortunately it paid off in the end.”
Feeney said he had relished working closely with Whincup and learning from the Supercars great, who is a four-time winner at Mount Panorama.
The pair finished fifth together at Bathurst in 2022, but Feeney said he was a stronger driver this year.
“I am learning so much off of him … I’m just trying to take it all in,” Feeney said.
“When he sits in my car he can pick up on a few things that could be better, he is probably a perfectionist.
“I am enjoying working with him and enjoying working on some ideas that we have brought forward to continue to improve the car.
“The fifth was all right last year, I would have loved to have got on the podium, we were running third for a little bit but just did not have what those guys in front of me did.
“I feel much more confident this year and my experience level is a bit better, but at the end of the day the mountain is the mountain and it will decide who is going to win.”
Feeney sits third in the Supercars drivers’ standings – 204 points behind series leader Brodie Kostecki – and has not given up hope of catching his Erebus Motorsport rival.
“That’s the goal. I would love to be a little bit closer at this stage of the year, but there is still more than enough opportunity, I think there are still 900 points up for grabs and 300 (at Bathurst),” said Feeney, who was sixth in the championship in his rookie season last year.
“Obviously, it would be good to get some good points (at Bathurst) and claw a few back and set us up for a good last two rounds.
“It’s not done yet so we’ll keep pushing.”
Erebus fires warning shot on day one of Bathurst 1000 practice
Erebus Motorsport fired an early warning to its rivals that it will have the cars to beat after setting the pace in opening Bathurst 1000 practice as Ford co-driver Garth Tander fuelled the parity debate when he intimated some of the Chevrolets may have been sandbagging.
On a day when the sport’s ongoing parity drama made more headlines after Ford’s proposed aerodynamic changes were rejected for Bathurst, series-leading Erebus set the benchmark to have its Camaro drivers on top in the first two practice sessions at Mount Panorama.
Will Brown was fastest in the opening session – featuring both the full-time and co-drivers – in which his championship leading teammate Brodie Kostecki was also third behind Grove Racing rookie Matt Payne in a Mustang.
Kostecki’s co-pilot David Russell also came out on top in the co-driver only session late in the day for Erebus, which leads both the driver and teams championship.
Russell’s time of 2:05.682 was faster than Brown’s in the opening session – the first time the sport’s Gen3 cars had tackled Mount Panorama.
Five-time Bathurst 1000 champion Garth Tander, teaming up with David Reynolds at Grove Racing this year, was second-fastest in the co-driver only session, bouncing back from a scary moment at the Sandown 500 when his Mustang lost a rear wheel.
Shane van Gisbergen’s co-driver Richie Stanaway was third in the co-driver only session, while Triple Eight boss Jamie Whincup was sixth after his Sandown win with Broc Feeney.
Asked how he felt the Fords would perform at Mount Panorama after the parity changes were denied, Tander, who won last year’s Bathurst 1000 alongside van Gisbergen at Triple Eight before his switch to Grove, suggested some of the opposition could be holding back.
“We are going to do exactly what we did at Sandown and focus on our own performance and focus on making our car as good as it can be and then see what happens on Sunday,” Tander said.
Asked whether the fact the Mustangs were second-fastest in both practice sessions allayed any concerns about performance, Tander said “it’s Thursday” before adding:
“I think I will just add to that actually. I think there’s a few of a particular brand of car that are running very, very heavy at the moment.”
There were five Fords inside the top-10 in the co-driver session and four Mustangs in P1, headlined by Payne, Chaz Mostert (fourth) and Reynolds (fifth).
Dick Johnson Racing wildcard Kai Allen, teaming with Swiss racer Simona De Silvestro, was the surprise performer in the co-driver session as the young gun finished fourth fastest.
Kostecki said it had been a solid start to the campaign on track for Erebus.
“It’s a sunny Thursday. It was good to get ‘D-Russ’ in (the car) early in P1 there and I was quite happy with the balance of the car,” Kostecki said.
“So it was good to get D-Russ in and get some more laps and obviously he went out and did an awesome job in P2.
“The team has done an awesome job with the set-up of the car so far, so we’ll just see if we can carry it on through.
Russell said the car was good to drive and “clearly it has got reasonable pace”.
Defending Bathurst champion van Gisbergen said the Triple Eight cars still had some speed to find ahead of qualifying.
“It was a pretty reasonable day … just trying to learn the cars, less aero, but obviously more tyre grip to make up for that “van Gisbergen said.
“We have got a bit of speed to find, but all three cars were there or thereabouts, but we will probably find out tomorrow in the pre-qualy session where we really are.”
After heavy rain lashed Bathurst on Wednesday, the drivers were greeted with clear conditions for the opening day on track on Thursday.
But there was still some drama early in the co-driver session, which was red-flagged just 10 minutes in after Dean Fiore – co-driving for Brad Jones Racing’s Bryce Fullwood – put his car into the tyre wall at Murray’s Corner.
The session was stopped for almost 15 minutes while the Camaro was retrieved, sporting significant damage to the front of the car.
The drivers have two more practice sessions on Friday before qualifying.
Originally published as Bathurst 1000: Brodie Kostecki storms to provisional pole
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