2024 Repco Bathurst 1000: Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood claim epic title at Mount Panorama
Brodie Kostecki has his first Bathurst 1000 crown after making the most of pole position at Mount Panorama as he defeated Broc Feeney by the slimmest of margins. See how the action unfolded!
Defending Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki was celebrating Bathurst 1000 “redemption” after holding off Triple Eight young gun Broc Feeney in a thrilling finish to claim a maiden win at Mount Panorama.
Converting from the front of the grid after securing back-to-back poles in Saturday’s Top 10 Shootout, Kostecki completed a full set of podium finishes at the Bathurst 1000 after triumphing in a duel to the finish with Feeney in race record time.
Putting a dramatic start to the season behind him, Kostecki teamed with co-driver Todd Hazelwood to add his name to the list of mountain kings and deliver a parting gift in the Great Race to the team he is leaving at the end of the year, Erebus Motorsport.
Kostecki steered his Camaro across the line ahead of the Red Bull pairings of Feeney and Jamie Whincup and championship leader Will Brown and Scott Pye, later revealing his fuel light had come on after he took the chequered flag.
Kostecki’s win comes after finishing runner-up at Mount Panorama last year and third in 2021, both alongside then co-driver David Russell.
Kostecki & Hazelwood are your 2024 Bathurst 1000 winners ðŸ
— Fox Motorsport (@Fox_Motorsport) October 13, 2024
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“It’s redemption from last year for sure,” Kostecki said, who had also started last year’s race on pole position.
The Bathurst triumph follows a tough title defence for Kostecki, who missed the first six races of the season after a widely reported falling out with his team, not re-joining the grid until the third round in Taupo, New Zealand.
Kostecki only has another two races left with Erebus Motorsport after signing to race with Ford squad Dick Johnson Racing from next year.
Well out of the championship battle after his missed races earlier in the season, the Bathurst win gave Kostecki his first win of the year in the biggest race of them all.
Kostecki celebrated his win standing on the roof of his car with Hazelwood before indulging in a shoey on the podium.
“I’m just in awe. Broc was breathing down my neck the whole time and there were 31 shootout laps that were balls to the walls the whole time,” Kostecki said.
“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.
“(My engineer) George (Commins) tuned it up for the end there and just enough to stay in front of Broc.”
Asked if he felt a Bathurst win was a possibility following what had transpired at the start of the season, Kostecki said he had never lost faith.
“I have never doubted my ability,” Kostecki said.
“We had some flashes of potential earlier in the season, but we never had the pace to match these guys and I felt like the last three or four rounds we have slowly been chipping away and found a balance that I am happy with the car again.”
Kostecki and Hazelwood had dominated the first half of the race before Feeney stepped up his pursuit in the 161-lap battle.
At one stage, the winners had held a 19-second lead over the Red Bull pair when Kostecki handed over to Hazelwood for his second stint in the car shortly after the half-way mark.
Feeney had cut the lead to four seconds when Grove Racing’s Matt Payne sparked the first safety car of the race on lap 132 when he slammed into the concrete wall at the Cutting.
The safety car intervention bunched the field together, triggering a sprint to the finish, but
Kostecki was able to hold on to give Erebus its second win in the Bathurst 1000, with the final margin just 1.3sec.
He later revealed he had been not far off running out of fuel.
UNBELIEVABLE SCENES AT BATHURST!!#RepcoSC#Supercars#Bathurst1000pic.twitter.com/tE0UHG15K3
— Supercars (@supercars) October 13, 2024
“George told me I was good. I think we put a bit extra in, knowing that I was going to be pushing my own air there,” Kostecki said.
“I got my fuel light coming over the line. He did a stellar job.
“Generally when it comes on … I’ve still got a lap worth of fuel.”
Hazelwood subbed for Kostecki during his spell on the sidelines and that added time behind the wheel put him in strong stead for the pair’s Bathurst campaign.
The co-driver, who lost his full-time seat at Blanchard Racing Team at the end of last year, did not put a foot wrong during the race.
After a string of crashes during practice and qualifying in the lead-up to the race at Mount Panorama, there had been fears the race could be incident-plagued.
But it turned out to be a largely trouble-free race with only one safety car deployed.
Without minimal safety car intervention and a hot pace, Sunday’s battle was the fastest Bathurst 1000 of all-time.
After starting from second on the grid, Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters finished fourth after recovering from an early race hiccup when he made a mistake at the first turn and ran off the track, dropping him back in the field.
Walkinshaw Andretti United star Chaz Mostert was the second Ford home, finishing fifth behind Waters.
See how the action unfolded in our live blog and keep track of the race leaders below.
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