Brodie Kostecki took a second Supercars win in a fortnight with a dominant performance on the streets of Gold Coast.
Kostecki led away from pole position in his Erebus Chevrolet Camaro, holding out Triple Eight’s Will Brown and Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford Mustang).
The man who looked out of position was Broc Feeney, who started from fifth on the grid in his Triple Eight Chevrolet and who started the first pitstop cycle when his crew short-filled him so he could get track position.
Most of the leaders followed that strategy and pitted on consecutive laps but the man who did not was Cam Waters, the winner of Saturday’s race. While the leading six cars followed a similar strategy – pitting between laps 24 and 29 and taking on similar amounts of fuel – the Tickford Ford driver alone ran longer and was stationary for almost twice as long.
As a result he came out in ninth place, right behind Team18 Chevrolet of David Reynolds and it was vital he got past promptly.
He did and in the following 20 laps Waters passed four cars. By the time that the second pit cycle played out he resumed in fourth, right behind the T8s and looking threatening.
But any hope he had of getting past the Camaros was compromised by a damaged front splitter and he had to settle for fourth, even though Brown had a steering problem for half the race.
“These guys pushed me once again,” grinned Kostecki after taking Erebus’s first Gold Coast win by 3.47s.
“It really come to life at the end there. A really fast pace, it was great execution by the team and the strategy was great.”
Brown was a satisfied man after extending his points lead.
“It was cool to see them [after leaving the pitlane], I had a steering drama there, left-hand down,” he explained.
“It came on about lap 40, the steering was changing and it was a little bit nerve-wracking through the chicanes, too keep it off the walls.
“I am glad to get through this weekend, heading to Adelaide and we’ll see what happens there.”
Feeney rued his qualifying position: “It was hard work, the story of our last few races is that we haven’t qualified high enough up,” he said.
“We are focused on a couple of wins [in Adelaide]. [I had] a win there a couple of years ago and second last year.”
Fifth place went to the second Tickford Mustang of Thomas Randle, ahead of Erebus’s Jack Le Brocq, who was stung with a five-second time penalty for an unsafe release from his second stop. As a result he dropped to eighth place.
Sixth went to Andre Heimgartner, who not only started from a lowly 17th on the grid but managed to tip-toe through a 10-car pileup at Turn 8 on the opening lap, which put Anton De Pasquale’s Dick Johnson Racing Ford out on the spot, and delayed several other drivers.
Grove Racing Ford’s Richie Stanaway was seventh ahead of Le Brocq, team-mate Matt Payne and Reynolds.
Mostert’s hopes of a top-six result were ruined after his Walkinshaw Andretti United crew under-filled his Ford at his second stop and he had to pit for a third time. By the end of the race he was back in 11th and as a result, fell out of mathematical title contention.
As a result, Brown’s championship lead, which was 171 points after Saturday, is now 180 over Feeney, 2772-2592. Mostert remains in third place on 2463 ahead of Waters (2344), Payne (1863) and James Golding (1841).
The title will go to one of the Triple Eight pilots and will be decided on the streets of Adelaide, over two 250km races, on 16-18 November.