The Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 served up another nail-biting finish in Sunday’s Race 26 on the streets of Surfers Paradise, where David Reynolds (No. 26 Penrite Ford Mustang) held off championship leader Brodie Kostecki (No. 99 Coca-Cola Chevrolet Camaro) to win the second race of the weekend.
It was a frantic fight to the flag in Race 26, with Kostecki passing Reynolds at Turn 4 on Lap 72 of 85, but gave it back two laps later when he ran wide at Turn 11, allowing the Albury-native to squeeze back into the lead.
The win is Reynolds’ win since the 2018 season finale and Newcastle, and comes 10 years and 2 days after he scored his first career Supercars win at the same circuit in 2013.
To celebrate his victory, Reynolds brought out his long-missed podium antics, emerging at the podium presentation spraying a fire extinguisher, performing his famous “shoey” celebration, and lobbing a decorative plant to his crew below the podium.
Less than 24 hours after winning by a near identical margin over Shane van Gisbergen, Cam Waters (No. 6 Monster Energy Ford Mustang) finished third in Race 26, as the Ford Mustangs swept this weekend’s two races.
Reynolds’ teammate and rookie Matt Payne (No. 19 Penrite Ford Mustang) finished fourth in today’s race, the best finish of his young career to date. He was followed home by van Gisbergen (No. 97 Red Bull Ampol Chevrolet Camaro) in fifth.
“I had a pretty bad day today,” commented van Gisbergen. “I want to thank the guys and girls in the team for their amazing effort all week. It’s the toughest track we have on cars, and the cars themselves ran faultlessly. The maintenance that was done to the cars overnight to get them in race shape today was fantastic, and they ran great today. I look forward to Adelaide now and hopefully enjoy my last full-time Supercars event.”
With Kostecki and van Gisbergen scoring identical points across the weekend, the West Australian’s championship lead returns to 131–points heading to the season finale in Adelaide next month.
Sunday’s race was bookended by two Safety Cars triggered by crashes. James Courtney, Macauley Jones, and Tim Slade all forced to retire from a Lap 1 tangle, while Scott Pye crashed out while trying to avoid a spinning James Golding while running eighth on Lap 78.
The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship now heads to the streets of Adelaide for the VAILO Adelaide 500, where this year’s championship is set to be decided between Kostecki and van Gisbergen over the November 23-26 weekend.
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