Brodie Kostecki wins ‘fairytale’ Bathurst 1000 with Todd Hazelwood after bouncing back from difficult year
The Bathurst 1000 has been run and won by reigning Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki and his Erebus co-driver Todd Hazelwood.
Recap all the action below.
Chequered flag flies!
Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood are Bathurst 1000 champions!
“The politics, the drama, the trauma of the commencement of the 2024 season for him well and truly behind him,” Neil Crompton said.
“Brodie Kostecki has shaken off the awkward start to the year to earn the biggest win of his career. He is the king of the mountain!”
It’s redemption for Kostecki after finishing runner-up 12 months ago in a year he won the Supercars title.
But that feels like a lifetime ago.
Kostecki, unwell at the start of the weekend, was not even supposed to be here, sitting out the first two rounds this year and widely expected to never again race for Erebus.
Yet he returned for the third round and has battled for success, finishing on the podium just once. And here is - about to lift the Peter Brock Trophy.
“In an extraordinary set of circumstances to start the 2024 Supercars championship, he lands himself in this car at a time - with the great effort today by Todd Hazelwood to position this car absolutely, with just over four laps remaining, in a position to win Australia’s biggest race,” Mark Skaife said as the race came to a close.
“It’s a fairytale for Brodie Kostecki. He’s been very fast and very committed. We know how much effort he puts in. But to get all this together, the complexity of winning a race like this is extraordinary, isn’t it?
“You think about the team effort. The men and women behind the scenes there at Erebus, and the complete preparation and professional protocols that you have to put in place to get a result like this is one of the toughest tests in sport.”
Hazelwood hasn’t previously come close to a victory in his time at Bathurst, finishing in the top 10 just once.
But his decision to join the Supercars champions as a co-driver has paid off.
Today’s triumph was his first ever win in Supercars and just his second podium.
Crucial laps at the start of the year, filling in for Kostecki at the rare Bathurst opener, no doubt played its part today.
“Unbelievable. I think I’m hallucinating. I’m just absolutely speechless,” Hazelwood said.
“Bush (Kostecki), he’s an absolute legend. We’ve been mates since day one. To do this together with him, absolute rocket ship of a car, thanks to everyone, it’s been a tough year. When you win Bathurst it makes up for everything.”
Bathurst top 10
1. Brodie Kostecki/Todd Hazelwood (Erebus Motorsport)
2. Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup (Triple Eight Race Engineering)
3. Will Brown/Scott Pye (Triple Eight)
4. Cam Waters/James Moffat (Tickford Racing)
5. Chaz Mostert/Lee Holdsworth (Walkinshaw Andretti United)
6. James Golding/David Russell (PremiAir Nulon Racing)
7. Anton De Pasquale/Tony D’Alberto (Dick Johnson Racing)
8. Jack Le Brocq/Jayden Ojeda (Erebus)
9. Richie Stanaway/Dale Wood (Grove Racing)
10. Cam Hill/Cam Crick (Matt Stone Racing)
Disappointment for the No.888 wildcard
It’s a pit-lane penalty for Murray after a safety car procedure breach.
He’s sitting seventh at the moment but will tumble down the order when he serves it.
Back underway!
We’ve got 27 laps to go.
It’s Kostecki v Feeney for the lead with championship leader Brown close behind.
Feeney had a quick look into turn two but didn’t try for a move.
SAFETY CAR IS OUT
Matt Payne is stopped just after the Cutting and looks devastated.
Running eighth, he lost it on entry and smashed into the outside wall.
“Sorry guys, it just wouldn’t downshift,” Payne told his team, according to pit reporter Chad Neylon.
Crompton says: “Tough deal for Payne at the end of a long, hard, hot day.”
Grove Racing said Payne is ok after his crash “but understandably gutted”.
“A strong weekend does not achieve the deserved reward,” the team said.
The first safety car is out on lap 132 of 161.
We’re in the critical window where everyone can take their final pit stop without having to stop again - so it’s going to be a sprint to the finish.
Waters is the first leading driver into pit lane.
“He’ll be the only guy in that top pack without fresh breaks, his cool suit’s not working. He’s just going to have to manage it,” Neylon says.
Everyone is keen on the safety car...
Team boss fires up
Jack Le Brocq is furious with Tim Slade heading up Mountain Straight.
Slade is down in 22nd but not giving up track position to the fourth-placed Le Brocq.
Erebus boss Barry Ryan just went down to the PremiAir garage and, according to Chad Neylon on the broadcast, “sprayed the entire engineering team”.
Le Brocq made his way by Slade just as we watched Ryan walk back to the Erebus garage.
It’s fair enough for Erebus to be frustrated but they’ve got bigger fish to fry at the moment.
Kostecki’s lead is down to 4.5 seconds, with Feeney on track to have the pace for an easy pass.
“It’s probably been the best stint of the race for him, the way he’s been able to maintain that consistency and use those tyres,” Skaife says of Feeney.
“He’s doing qualifying laps every lap.”
Kostecki’s engineer George Commins have declared everything is fine and well, save for some traffic to deal with.
Up the front
Feeney is less than seven seconds back from Kostecki now.
We’ve got just under 40 laps to go, so plenty of time for the chase to heat up... and even a possible safety car.
Interestingly, Brown is 39 seconds behind Feeney. That’s an astonishing margin between teammates given they both operate at a very high level.
Meanwhile, we’ve just seen some footage of Nick Percat - down in 22nd - tagging the wall exiting Forrest’s Elbow.
Through he goes
Payne is on the defensive now trying to protect seventh place against Mostert.
But Mostert’s pressure worked to perfection and he nabbed the position at Murray’s Corner.
All of a sudden Murray is in the action, and he’s locked up! He’s bumped Mostert and gone ahead of Payne.
They’ve all survived and Murray gave the position back to Payne.
Murray’s also tagged the wall heading up the mountain.
“That actually will make a wheel alignment change, you can see the rear wheel buckle,” Skaife says.
More action
But it’s all in the pit lane.
Kostecki is back in and shaping as a comfortable winner, sitting 10 seconds clear of Feeney.
Wrapped up
We’ve just heard from James Moffat after finishing up his co-driving duties.
He says the No.6 Mustang is starting to come to them, with Waters making his way up the top 10.
“Safety car would be handy for us,” he says.
Moffat says he doesn’t think the team’s coolsuit issue has been rectified.
“It was alright for me, I’m just more concerned for Cam because a triple-stint home without it will be hard work,” he says.
“But that’s why gets paid the big bucks.”
Position change
David Russell locked up his No.31 Camaro at the Chase under pressure from Waters and went off track to let him through for eighth position.
Disappointing for the No.888
Lowndes has locked up and given up on Murray’s to save his car.
“Big mistake, he’s actually had to bail out, which is the right decision, but this is going to cost,” Crompton says.
“There is a bit of tyre burning in that process. But it could be worse there. The biggest mistake you can make at the last corner is to arrive 10km/h too quick and end up in that shallow gravel trap. There’s no coming back when you get in the gravel there.
“That’ll hurt him now because they’ve been speedy.”
Lowndes lost three spots and is down in 12th.
