Elbows out as Kostecki claims a hectic Race 2
By Timothy Neal
Date posted: 31 March 2023
Brodie Kostecki has won Race 2 of the Supercars Melbourne SuperSprint, albeit in bizarre circumstances that ended a highly entertaining but short outing.
It was a maiden Supercars Victory for Erebus’ Kostecki in the #99 Camaro, with Courtney claiming P2 over SVG, in a race that ended under a safety car.
There were minimal racing laps, but every one of those was elbows out racing, in what was…or would have been?…the most entertaining Gen3 outing yet.
The short 15 lap sprint got underway with grey clouds, with SVG sharing the front row with Brown, over Kostecki and Feeney.
The race began with Hazelwood at the back, having been disqualified from qualifying for a drop-gear infringement.
Brown took the first corner on the inside in a hectic start with Reynolds going into the gravel bringing out a yellow, which brought an end to the early intrigue.
Percat’s car then bizarrely caught fire under the safety car, with flames coming out of the front left, with the fire extinguished in the pits, whilst Reynolds managed to return to the track at the rear of the field.
The green flag dropped with Brown making the call to go at turn 14 with SVG pulling through for some brilliant door to door stuff, leading to a massive reshuffling of the top order.
SVG’s aggression dropped him into P5 leaving himself open when he was forced wide, as Brown also lost the lead with Kostecki going P1 over Courtney and his teammate.
A big dive into the pits from half the field ended a brilliant action packed lap in a now time-certain race, as Kostecki, Courtney and SVG all resisted the early pit with two and half minutes until the race became time certain.
This was as a result of Le Brocq, who stopped on track after he scrapped the paint at Turn 8.
A brilliant and entertaining race was forced to end in strange circumstances with cars that hadn’t pitted forced in to then re-enter under the safety car.
That left Kostecki in the lead over Courtney and van Gisbergen, with Feeney taking P4 over Mostert, De Pasquale.
They emerged ahead of the early stopping Brown, Fullwood, Randle and Golding.
2023 Australian Grand Prix Supercars schedule/running results
Thursday, March 30
11.25-11.55 Practice 1 – 1: Winterbottom 1:49.967 2: De Pasquale +0.151 2: SVG +0.207
13.15-13.45 Practice 2 – 1: Heimgartner 1:47.870 2: De Pasquale +0.021 3: Waters +0.046
14.45-15.00 Qualifying (Race 3) – 1 Anton de Pasquale 1:49.3167; 2 Brodie Kostecki +0.0401; 3 Shane van Gisbergen +0.0716
15.10-15.25 Qualifying (Race 4) – 1 Shane van Gisbergen 1:47.2537; 2 William Brown +0.0196; 3 Broc Feeney +0.0789
17.45 Race 3 (19 laps) 1: Van Gisbergen 00:38.39 2: Kostecki +0.391 3: Brown +1.952
Friday, March 31
15.55 Race 4 (15 laps) 1: Kostecki 2: Courtney :3 SVG (Safety car finish)
Saturday, April 1
9.30-9.45 Qualifying (Race 5)
9.55-10.10 Qualifying (Race 6)
17.30 Race 5 (13 laps)
Sunday, April 2
10.25 Race 6 (13 laps)
For more of the latest motorsport news, pick up the latest issue of AUTO ACTION.
AUTO ACTION, Australia’s independent voice of motorsport.
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