Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki (No. 99 Coca-Cola Chevrolet Camaro) has converted pole into victory in today’s Repco Supercars Championship race at The Bend Motorsport Park, his fourth win of the 2023 season.
The win follows the Perth native’s fifth pole of the season taken earlier on Saturday afternoon. He becomes the eighth different Supercars race winner at The Bend, and increases his championship lead from 41 to 80 points.
Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert (No. 25 Mobil 1 Optus Ford Mustang) finished second in an intense 100-kilometre race, his fifth podium of 2023 and third in the last five races.
Coming home third was Tickford’s Thomas Randle (No. 55 Castrol Ford Mustang), who scored his first career podium as a solo driver.
The 27-year old from Melbourne led the first 10 laps of the race after a flying start from second on the grid en route to being the 14th different driver to stand on a Supercars podium this year.
For the second race in a row, championship contender Will Brown (No. 9 Coca-Cola Chevrolet Camaro) found trouble at the first corner, as the Toowoomba native was spun and collected in a multi-car incident that ended his day and two others on the spot.
With his first DNF since New Zealand last year, Brown drops to fourth in the drivers’ championship.
Triple Eight Race Engineering duo Shane van Gisbergen (No. 97 Red Bull Ampol Chevrolet Camaro) and Broc Feeney (No. 88 Red Bull Ampol Chevrolet Camaro) finished fifth and sixth respectively, just behind Randle’s teammate Cam Waters (No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang in fourth.
“We continued to have a few problems with our car today which was gutting,” commented van Gisbergen. “The guys work so hard, and I really want to give them credit for trying to get to the bottom of these issues, but they plagued us all day unfortunately.
“Although we got a decent haul of points in the end, I want to put today behind us and work with the guys to get to the bottom of these problems so we can start fresh and have a better day tomorrow.”
Supercars returns to action Sunday morning with back-to-back qualifying from 9:45 a.m. ACST to set the grid for Races 21 and 22 of the 2023 Supercars season.
Two more 100-kilometre races will follow on Sunday with Race 21 beginning at 12:50 p.m., and Race 22 starting from 3:50 p.m.
This weekend’s event marks the 600th race round in Supercars history, and is the first to be held in South Australia since the race introduction of the Gen3 platform which commenced competition earlier this year.
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