Kostecki On Provisional Pole For Bathurst 1000
Brodie Kostecki has put the #99 Coca-Cola by Erebus Motorsport Camaro on provisional pole for the Bathurst 1000, setting a 2:04.6644 to top qualifying by 0.15s over the rest of the field. Kostecki set his qualifying lap in the first half of the 40-minute session, and as track conditions changed in the latter stages, sat out the last stanza of qualifying as no one was able to match his time.
He will be the last driver out in tomorrow’s Shootout, while his teammate, Will Brown, missed the top 10 after crashing in qualifying. Both Shell V-Power Mustangs, Red Bull Ampol Camaros, and Penrite Racing Mustangs will feature in the shootout, with four Camaros and six Mustangs in the 10.
The day started with Practice 3, which got underway under cool and overcast conditions, and was the first ‘hot’ pit-lane session of the weekend. This saw teams practice pit stops, refuelling, driver changes, and brake changes, to varying degrees of success. The new Gen 3 chassis has a smaller opening for the driver to enter the car, making driver changes more difficult, and the new control brake system requires both brake callipers and the housing to be changed as a single unit. A brake change is required in the mid part of the race on Sunday, and if the difficulties from Practice 3 are anything to go by, the brake change will play an important part in track position during the race.
Once again, the early marker in the session was Brodie Kostecki in the #99 Coca-Cola by Erebus Camaro, who set down a 2:05.577 on his second flying lap. He later improved that time to a 2:05.4377, which stood at the top of the sheets for much of the session. The session was largely uneventful, with teams practising driver changes and validating setups, before a stoppage with 17 minutes left on the clock to recover the stranded #5 Snowy River Racing Mustang.
Zac Best at the wheel of the #5 was parked up on driver’s left down Conrod Straight, with a temperature alarm showing on the dash coming out of Forrest Elbow. The car was able to be pulled over the crest and coasted down the mountain into the pits – the cause of the alarm was diagnosed as a destroyed water pump belt.
The stoppage to the session reset the flow of proceedings and gave teams the chance to put on new tyres and hunt for outright pace heading into qualifying later in the day. A number of drivers stretched the limits of the track; Van Gisbergen had a moment in McPhillamy, running wide over the exit, as did Moffat who managed to stay on track. But both paled in comparison to a monster slide for Zane Goddard in the #888 Supercheap Auto Camaro, who had full opposite lock coming over the hump at McPhillamy Park, touring the gravel trap and just managing to keep it off the wall.
More drama for Triple Eight cars as Goddard picks up some sand!
Lowndes doesn't seem too fazed by it though.
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A flurry of fast times ended with Matt Payne putting the #19 Penrite Racing Mustang on top with a 2:05.2855, followed by Penrite Racing team-mate David Reynolds in the #26 Mustang. They were the only two to better Kostecki’s early marker, while the Shell V-Power Racing duo of #17 Will Davison and #11 Anton De Pasquale completed the top 5.
The top 10 was completed by Cameron Hill (#35 Truck Assist Camaro), Broc Feeney (#88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro), Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang), Cameron Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang), and Andre Heimgartner (#8 R&J Batteries Camaro), all of whom were in the 2:05’s for the session.
Practice 4 was expected to be a big hit out, with the excitement levels hard to contain for some of the trackside residents!
It's a pawfect day for racing #RepcoSC #Supercars #Bathurst1000 pic.twitter.com/fBLzs9TZ7p
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However, the change in track conditions across the day, including substantially more sunlight, meant that the outright pace shown in the morning’s practice 3 was not as apparent. While 2:05 second laps were set in the first 10 minutes of each of the three previous practice sessions, it wasn’t until almost halfway that Brodie Kostecki hit the first number in the 5’s – a 2:05.6.
The session was steady and ran entirely without interruption. It was clear that the drivers were still pushing hard however – Thomas Randle, Zane Goddard and Kai Allen had to use the tarmac escape road down the Esses, and Aaron Love tagged the wall with the #4 Petronas Racing Mustang at the top of McPhillamy, but was able to continue running without issue.
It wasn’t until very late in the session that the lap times started to drop. Matt Payne in the #19 Penrite Racing Mustang was the first to hit the mark with 5 minutes left, with a 5.9, followed by Anton De Pasquale, who hit a 5.86. Almost everyone hit a quick lap right at the very end, with the top 10 dropping below the 2:06 mark.
But the best lap was left till last: Still, on top of the session, Brodie Kostecki put the #99 Coca-Cola by Erebus Camaro well ahead of the field, bettering his lap time by almost half a second, to end the session with a 2:05.1215.
Scott Pye put the #20 Toyota Forklifts Camaro into second with a 2:05.7, with a quartet of Mustangs – Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus), Cam Waters (#6 Monster Energy), Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Racing), and Anton De Pasquale (#11 Shell V-Power Racing) rounding out positions 3-6. James Golding (#31 Nulon Racing Camaro), Thomas Randle (#55 Castrol Mustang), Broc Feeney (#88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro) and Jack Le Brocq (#34 Truck Assist Camaro) completed the top 10, with the gap from second down to 10th only a quarter of a second.
A notable name missing from the top of the timesheet was Shane Van Gisbergen, who was on for a lap in the mid 2:05s on his last flyer. Unfortunately, a locked wheel at Murray’s Corner, the last corner on the track, saw him up the escape road and down the time sheets, finishing in 17th. He was just ahead of one of the other pace-setters this weekend, the #26 Penrite Mustang of David Reynolds, who commented after the session that he felt “the conditions were worse than this morning.”
The mid-pack was incredibly condensed, with positions two down to 27 separated by only 1.2 seconds.
With the tension building, all eyes turned towards qualifying, to see who could make it into the all-important top 10 shootout.
Unfortunately, the session was halted before a flying lap had been set, with one of the favourites stuck under the tyre barrier at Griffins Bend. Will Brown locked the front right of the #9 Coca-Cola by Erebus Camaro and made a heavy impact with the wall on the outside of the corner. The red flag was called, and Brown was extracted from the tyre wall but was able to then drive around to get back to the pits.
Will Brown goes CRASH BANG!
Straight into the wall at Griffin's Bend.
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For Erebus, it was a race against time to return the #9 Camaro back to the track, which was aided by another 5 minutes to repair the tyre barrier, before the session went green again. They were further helped by a second red flag for a much bigger accident the following lap.
Declan Fraser got out of the groove going up the mountain and hit the wall hard under the tree at Sulmann Park. The impact was so violent that it lifted the #56 Tradie Mustang into the air, with debris strewn across the track, and the Mustang taking no further part in the session. Fraser thankfully got out of the car under his own steam, but was taken to the medical centre for checks and observation. It remains to be seen whether the #56 can be repaired for tomorrow, or if it will make it to the grid on Sunday.
The red flag is out AGAIN!
Declan Fraser smacks into the wall at Reid Park.
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The clean-up took another 7 minutes, and the session resumed with 30 minutes on the clock, without a flying lap being set. The first one to lay down a mark was Broc Feeney in the #88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro, with a 2:05.3, but he was immediately eclipsed by Cameron Waters in the #6 Monster Energy Mustang, who set the first 2:04 of the weekend, with a 2:04.9909. Not to be outdone, Brodie Kostecki put the #99 Coca-Cola by Erebus Camaro on provisional pole with a 2:04.6644, putting a substantial gap between him and the rest of the field.
James Golding jumped into second in the #31 Nulon Racing Camaro, setting a 2:04.81, with Anton De Pasquale slotting in behind him in the #11 Shell V-Power Mustang with a 4.96. With 15 minutes remaining, the track condition was beginning to go away from the teams, with teams making adjustments looking for more front-end grip as the clouds came in.
None of the front runners improved in the final stages, with attention firmly turning towards the end of the top 10, and to see who would make it into tomorrow’s Top 10 Shootout. Of the key contenders, Shane van Gisbergen was the one looking to improve the most, sitting outside the 10 after again locking up at the final corner on his first run.
Despite the adjustments for the final run, track conditions put most cars out of the window, with improvements few and far between. David Reynolds moved the #26 Penrite Mustang further into the 10. Scott Pye in the #20 Toyota Forklifts Camaro and Andre Heimgartner in the #8 R&J Batteries Camaros both improved, but finished just outside the 10. The only driver to jump into the top 10 on the last run was Van Gisbergen, who improved from 13th to seventh, securing the #97 Red Bull Ampol Camaro a place in the shootout.
Brodie Kostecki will be the last man out in tomorrow’s top 10 shootout, with James Golding a surprise second in the session. Anton de Pasquale and Cameron Waters were the only other drivers in the 2:04s, with Broc Feeney finishing the session 5th in the #88 with a 2:05.0524. David Reynolds in the #26 Penrite Mustang ended in 6th, ahead of Van Gisbergen’s #97 in 7th, with the top 10 being completed by the Mustangs of Matt Payne (#19 Penrite Racing), Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Racing), and Will Davison (#17 Shell V-Power Racing). The time needed to get into the top 10, a 2:05.2851 – equal to the fastest time from Practice 3 this morning.
Positions 11 down to 25 were within a second of getting in to the top 10, with Thomas Randle the unlucky man on the bubble, missing the shootout by less than a tenth of a second. Erebus was able to return Will Brown’s #9 Camaro back to the circuit, but he could only manage a time good enough for 15th place.
Saturday’s Supercars action starts with a co-driver-only session at 9:30 AEDT (UTC+11), with the final practice session at 12:30. The Top 10 Shootout, to set the grid for the 60th Bathurst 1000, is at 16:35 AEDT, ahead of 1000km of racing on Sunday.
Image courtesy of Erebus Motorsport
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