Supercars Sandown: Kostecki wins to advance to finale

Brodie Kostecki, Dick Johnson Racing and Ford have emerged with the win in an action-packed Saturday race at the historic Sandown Park Raceway in Melbourne

In unseasonably chilly conditions, Kostecki and his Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang emerged from a cracking battle for the lead to take the lead and set the pace in a battle between drivers managing fuel consumption, tyre wear and tactics over the last half of the race.

Kostecki won the race by a handy 5.36s from the Grove Racing Ford of points leader Matt Payne, with Cam Waters returning to form for Tickford Racing to sweep the podium for the Blue Oval.

In the first phase of the 250km race, Payne held off the pack and led until the opening pit stops, which were prompted by a fire in the Aaron Cameron/Blanchard Racing Team Ford. Payne lost two places with a slow rejoin, leaving Will Brown (Triple Eight Ford) and Kostecki to battle for the lead.

And battle they did, the two trading blows on numerous occasions, until Kostecki snuck through, Brown retaliated and spun at Turn 4. A second Safety Car allowed the field to pit under yellow again, leaving the order Waters, Kostecki, Payne, Broc Feeney (Triple Eight Ford), Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw TWG Toyota Supra) and Anton De Pasquale (Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro).

But there were challenges. Mostert was battling wheelspin and dropped back. The leaders faced the challenge of getting their Dunlop Control tyres to last the final 39 laps – and the fuel to go the distance as well.

It was a stalemate. Kostecki drove as fast as he dared to hold position, and as slow as he dared to save fuel. Waters had the advantage of sitting in his tow, but that upped his tyre wear. Payne and Feeney were busy with their own battle, but with one eye on taking the win should the drivers ahead blink.

The tyre question won the day. Feeney started to lose rear grip, allowing Mostert past. Likewise, Waters started to have the rears fade and Payne fired by, with 14 laps remaining.

Then Mostert moved past with three laps to go, but contact on the way through prompted him to hand the place back, and Waters held him out.

“We had to own that one, that’s for sure. I held Will out, I was racing Cam up the back straight,” said Kostecki, whose win advances him to the Final Four in Adelaide later this month.

“I had a few cracks, I had the brakes locked a few times. You had to put everything on the line. The team was incredible down the pit lane, I had to do a little bit of fuel save but we got away with it.”

Payne lamented the slow returns he made after both pit stops.

“It was a pretty cool race, a lot of action out there and I just wanted to keep my nose clean, I knew we would come back in the end.

“It didn’t seem to have any go when it dropped off the jacks, it just didn’t seem to have any momentum. When we were in clean air, it was really working for us.”

Waters’ third place left him one point out of the top four drivers to advance to the next Finals round.

“It was an unreal race,” he said after his result. “I had a few hairy moments out there, I probably took a bit out of my car trying to catch Brodie. I had a little bit more tyre at that point and I held on for third.”

Mostert took fourth, holding out a strong late-race challenge from the Blanchard Racing Team Ford of James Golding, who surged through the field after starting well outside the top 10.

The battle for the best of the Chevrolet Camaro drivers went right down to the final laps. The Team 18 Camaro of Anton De Pasquale was fighting to hold out the Matt Stone Racing example of Zach Bates, until the latter ran wide and dropped two places. After the mystery outbreak of fuel consumption problems at the Gold Coast, which saw two Camaros pit in the final laps, all the Chevrolet drivers were racing with a warning from Supercars that there should be no shenanigans to promote De Pasquale (the brand’s only Finalist) to a better position.

Right behind was the PremiAir Camaro of Cooper Murray, from the Brad Jones Racing Toyotas of Andre Heimgartner and Macauley Jones.

The race was a tough one for Feeney, who faded to 11th, and Brown, who was 20th when the flag fell.

The teams will assemble Sunday for another 250km race, with cool but dry conditions predicted.

Supercars Sandown - Race 1 results

RACE1

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