Winton hosted the opening round of the Cash Converters Supercars ESeries last night where Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki and Dayne Warren for Walkinshaw Andretti United took victories in the All Stars and Pro categories respectively.
In the All Stars event, reigning champion Kostecki finished ahead of Justin Ruggier in the Cash Converters Racing Ford Mustang and Brad Jones Racing’s Andre Heimgartner.
Ruggier led at the start as Kostecki failed to lose sight of the Mustang throughout the opening stint, culminating in an attempt to pass at Turn 9, but this was redressed due to contact.
However, just prior to the pit stops it was Kostecki making his move at turn 10 as Ruggier ducked into the lane immediately to gain an undercut advantage. This failed, but only just as Kostecki emerged from the pits ahead and the Erebus driver was able to take victory by 3.6s.
It wasn’t easy for Kostecki as a safety car on lap 13 closed the field up, but he was never headed following the restart.
Brad Jones Racing’s Aaron Borg finished fourth ahead of Matt Stone Racing Supercars driver Jack Le Brocq and Super3 young gun Brad Vaughan for Blanchard Racing Team finished sixth.
Contact with Matt McLean dropped Jayden Ojeda back to seventh as Jordan Cox, Macauley Jones and James Golding completed the top 10.
As the reigning champion of the Pro Series, Warren entered as the favourite and he did those predictions no harm to take victory.
It was a tight contest as Warren battled Erebus Motorsport’s Jarrad Filsell for the race’s duration as it was the latter taking the early lead before the pit stops.
Warren initiated an undercut strategy and it worked as it proved race defining with the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver held on by 0.34s.
Rounding out the top five were Cooper Webster for Team18, Jake Burton and Corey Shepherd in the Repco Racing Ford Mustang.
The next round of the Cash Converters Supercars ESeries is the Sandown enduro with the All Stars and Professionals pairing up for Wednesday’s event.