Bathurst 1000 hour 1: Kostecki and Camaros take charge
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 13 October 2024
Brodie Kostecki has converted pole position and opened a formidable lead over Broc Feeney after a relatively quiet opening hour of the 2024 Bathurst 1000.
Kostecki has led all 25 laps of the Great Race so far and enjoys a 2s advantage over Feeney.
A two-horse race is starting to form with the leading pair 10s up the road of Will Brown, while leading Mustangs Cameron Waters and Chaz Mostert have run into some recent trouble.
Richie Stanaway was as high as second, but dropped back throughout the opening stint and is the leading Ford in fourth.
When lights went out under sunny skies, the second row launched much better than the leaders with Feeney diving down the inside to steal second from Waters and challenge Kostecki for the lead.
The Erebus and Triple Eight Camaros produced the thrilling sight of running the length of Mountain Straight side by side.
Kostecki prevailed on the inside, while Stanaway smartly placed his Mustang to snatch second.
By the time they arrived at The Chase, Stanaway even had a look at challenging for the lead before backing out. The lead pair only needed a handful of laps to skip a second away from the pack.
Waters was the loser falling to fourth ahead of Brown, De Pasquale and Golding, who made the most ground on a relatively clean opening lap, rising four spots to seventh.
The sister Grove Racing Mustang of Payne ended up second best in a thrilling fight for ninth with Mostert as the pair ran side by side through The Chase.
Reynolds drifted to last with a rear flatspot, one spot behind Courtney, who was ironing out a car that needed a gearbox change following the warmup.
By Lap 9 Kostecki had pulled a second clear of Stanaway, who soon had Feeney on his tail.
The Triple Eight driver thew it down the inside of Griffins Bend and despite a little wriggle, made it stick.
Once clear Feeney was able to ensure the top three were evenly split by a second.
The first to suffer a scare was Matt Chahda when he rotated the wildcard at The Chase on Lap 14.
Just two laps later he also went off at Hell Corner, battling to stop the #118 Camaro.
Pit stops were first sighted after 16 laps when Davison handed over the #17 to Allen from 15th, while Reynolds finally changed tyres a lap later.
At the same moment the fight for second livened up.
Waters had a lunge on Stanaway at Forrests Elbow and gave the Kiwi a whack at the apex.
The two Mustangs ran side by side down Conrod and Waters won the drag race thanks to a NASCAR style bump draft by Brown.
As a result Stanaway slipped from third to fifth in a flash.
However, Waters threw away significant track position by locking up and going down the escape road at Hell Corner.
The Tickford star had Brown on his back dropped from third to 10th.
In further drama for Ford fans, Mostert then had a run in with the Vaughan wildcard.
The WAU driver had a peak at trying to lap the #118 at Forrests Elbow, but tagged the Camaro and sent it into a spin.
Whilst Mostert carried on in sixth with minimal steering damage, Vaughan lost his front bumper and had to box for repairs.
It was a dramatic end to the opening hour where Kostecki and Feeney were running away from pack as the first round of stops approach.
Image: Peter Norton
2024 Bathurst 1000 leaderboard
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