A dominant display by Brodie Kostecki has assured his title aspirations haven’t dampened after securing victory in the Townsville 500 finale.
It’s Kostecki’s sixth win of the season in the Shell V-Power Racing Team Mustang and completed a strong round for the 2023 champion after missing the Sunday action in Darwin.
Although dropping to third off the start behind Monster Castrol Racing’s Cam Waters and Ryan Wood, who nearly completed an audacious pass around the outside for the lead from third.
The Mobil 1 Truck Assist Racing Toyota GR Supra slotted into second by Turn 3, but there was chaos back in the pack.
In a case of too many Supercars into one corner, Turn 2 was littered with damage everywhere.
Entering Turn 2 three-wide is trouble as Aaron Cameron, Andre Heimgartner and Cooper Murray found out.
Cameron was tipped into a spin by Heimgartner and Murray leading to others including Anton De Pasquale also becoming involved.
Macauley Jones and Reuben Goodall finished off the job leading to the first appearance of the safety car for the event
Later around the opening lap, James Golding was spun by Murray to cap off a disastrous start for the Blanchard Racing Team.
Pole-sitter Waters led the way off the short safety car period, but Wood failed to go with him and was disposed off by Kostecki on lap 8.
It was another eight laps until Kostecki was the first of the leaders to pit alongside Repco Sprint Cup leader Matt Payne.
Wood continued to struggle as his rival from Race 21, Kai Allen snuck through courtesy of a mistake.
Kostecki’s undercut came into play when Waters pitted on lap 25, with Waters emerging in third behind Payne.
It took another 12 laps before Waters demoted Payne back to third before the latter took his final service with 26-laps remaining.
Six laps later, Kostecki was in and there was no hint of the dramas from Race 21 during his stop as he emerged from the pits in the lead.
Waters’ final stop was far from textbook after a slow tyre change and a failure to take on all the fuel required forced him into save mode immediately.
Another to experience a troubled stop was Allen after the front-left wheel wasn’t fastened properly forcing the crew to jack the Penrite Racing Mustang back up.
In the end, Kostecki secured a four second victory ahead of Payne and Waters after losing, then gaining ground to Mobil 1 Optus Racing Toyota GR Supra Chaz Mostert.
Mostert, who was celebrating his 200th race with the team, made the move easy by running wide at the final corner to allow Waters to take the final step on the podium.
Behind the top four, Wood was fifth ahead of Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Broc Feeney, Allen, Will Brown, lead Chevrolet Jack Le Brocq and Jayden Ojeda.
It was a big day for Le Brocq as he moved inside the Finals bubble at the expensive of Golding.
A big burnout after the race didn’t quite go to plan for Kostecki after hitting the wall in similar fashion to Will Davison back in 2013.
The Repco Sprint Cup enters its penultimate round at Wanneroo Raceway for the Perth Super Sprint on July 31-August 2.