KOSTECKI AND HAZELWOOD ON A (CHIKO) ROLL AT BATHURST

October 18, 2024
Admin
Supercars
0 Comments

The 2024 Repco Bathurst 1000 will be remembered for a number of reasons.

It was the fastest ever running of the Great Race, breaking the six-hour mark in 5:58:03.0649.

The race was interrupted by just a solitary Safety Car period, a feat almost unparalleled in Supercars history. Matt Payne was the unfortunate victim at the Cutting with 30 laps still to run.

SEE THE FULL BATHURST GALLERY HERE

That resulted in an epic battle to the finish between Brodie Kostecki in the Chiko Rolls Erebus Motorsport Camaro against the might of both Red Bull Ampol Racing Camaros.

Most notably the weekend will remembered as a win for the battlers.

Brodie Kostecki and teammate Todd Hazlewood had come to Bathurst with hopes for a highlight in what had been a character-building year.

Kostecki’s 2023 championship victory and post-season problems had been the subject of endless speculative pieces, as had his absence from the opening rounds of season 2024. From that disruptive start to the year, Kostecki and the various liveries #1 TFH Hire Services supported Camaro had slowly edged their way back up the grid.

Todd Hazelwood had become a supercars endurance driver, having left his full-time drive in the Repco Supercars championship in search of those elusive wins.

A newly forged relationship between Hazelwood and TFH Hire Services Racing provided a significant boost for the South Australian driver. It put him behind the wheel of a Trans Am Ford Mustang, where the wins flowed once more. It also saw him return for a two-round supercars cameo in A TFH Hires Services Erebus Motorsport Camaro.

Their inaugural endurance run at the Sandown 500 showed plenty of promise. Hazelwood battled Whincup during the early stages of the race before an untimely puncture and a later mechanical failure brought their challenge to an end.

Then came Bathurst.

SEE THE FULL BATHURST GALLERY HERE

It kicked off on a positive with the announcement of Chiko Roll as the #1s primary sponsor at the mountain.

That heralded a series of coincidences which, in hindsight, may well have been a sign of what lay ahead.

Team Principal Barry Rogers had worked for John Faulkner Racing where the iconic Chiko Roll branding ran at Bathurst almost a quarter of a century ago. A race suit from that event hung proudly in the Erebus Motorsport garage.

It is also nigh on three-quarters of a century since Frank McEncroe produced the first Chiko Rolls, which are now mass-produced around a stone’s throw from Mount Panorama.

The product is described as both robust and somewhat resilient in its nature on the brand website, which may well also describe Kostecki and Hazelwood.

The pair began their Bathurst campaign rather inauspiciously, ending the first practice session in nineteenth as Kostecki and Hazelwood commenced a meticulous race preparation.

A fourth place in P2 was followed by another nineteenth in P3.

Then the substance of the Chiko Roll Camaro came to the fore.

SEE THE FULL BATHURST GALLERY HERE

Kostecki topped the final practice session and then placed the #1 well inside the Top 10 in qualifying.

Saturday’s Top 10 shootout set the scene for the race ahead.

Pushing aside a suspected virus, Kostecki was clinical in his race lines. The top of the mountain belonged to Brodie, punching out a benchmark almost a half-a-second better than early pacesetter Richie Stanaway. That set the platform for Kostecki’s best in a 2:05.5119.

Others came and failed to match the TFH Hire Services supported Chiko Rolls Camaro. Cameron Waters finished second, around a tenth-and-a-half slower, while third places Broc Feeney was over three-tenths of a second behind.

Feeney and Jamie Whincup would later become Kostecki and Hazelwood’s main challenger for the crown.

As Sunday dawned, the cars completed one final warm up. The #1 Camaro didn’t record a time in the red-flag reduced session, while the Red Bull Ampol Racing Camaros sat first and second.

It proved now cause for concern as drivers buckled into their machines and the privileged masses cleared the grid.

Kostecki came under siege almost immediately as the light went out to start the race. Broc Feeney and Richie Stanaway nipped at the heels of the Chiko Rolls car as the race began. For a moment the race resembled a 100 metre sprint and not the 161 Enduro that has become an Australian icon.

Kostecki placed the Chiko Roll, TFH Hire Services supported Camaro perfectly into Turn 1. That effectively doused Feeney’s charge up the inside. Stanaway had ducked and weaved the Penrite Oil Camaro around Feeney and into second on the run up the hill for the first time.

Waters had been slower off the line and soon dropped back towards the edge of the Top 5. It was a position that the team appeared destined to maintain throughout the first quarter of the race.

Kostecki set the benchmark time with a 2:08.1 on Lap 4. That time stood for the majority of the ensuing 157 circuits. It was eventually surpassed on Lap 142 by Kostecki and then Feeney, with the Red Bull Ampol Racing driver claiming the fastest time with a 2:07.8610 as he fought to reduce a ten-second deficit.

Kostecki took his first stop on Lap 28 and handed over to Todd Hazelwood. Feeney trailed the leader into the pitlane with teammate Jamie Whincup standing at the ready for his first stint.

Most teams elected to pit around Lap 25 and get their co-drivers on board. The strategy aimed to complete the second driver commitment as quickly as possible. Team 18 chose a different approach, with primary drivers Reynolds and Winterbottom staying in the their cars for the best part of fifty laps.

Garth Tander had taken the reins of the Grove Racing #19 and looked to gain a place under brakes for Murrays Corner. A telltale puff of smoke from Tander’s front tyres saw the Golden Penrite car take to the escape road.

He wasn’t alone in suffering from a brake lockup. Waters took to the escape road at Turn 1 during the opening exchanges of the race, whilst David Reynolds had nursed a flat spotted tyre after an incident in the opening laps of the race.

SEE THE FULL BATHURST GALLERY HERE

The hard compound tyre contributed to a very different race strategy to 2023. It also meant that the cars were much looser around the circuit, as evidenced by the number of drivers who slid into the wall at the notorious ‘Grate.’ The glancing blows caused little, if any damage at all.

Given the incidents to Pye, Crick, Reynolds and Davison over the earlier sessions of the weekend, there were serious concerns for a similar incident later in the race.

At quarter race distance it was Holdsworth, who enjoyed a three-second lead over the Red Bull Ampol Racing pair of Whincup and Pye, Wood and Ojeda were next as Cooper Murray elevated the Super Cheap Auto wildcard into sixth.

It was proving to be a less successful day for the Matt Chahda Boost Mobile wildcard. Having driven a conservative race, electing to stay out of trouble, the car still found the wall at Forrest Elbow after a lunge from the Mostert/Holdsworth WAU Racing Camaro. That contact saw the front splitter dislodged as the car gyrated sideways into the outside wall,

The race ran virtually incident free throughout the first 50 laps of the race, with no need for either the Full Corse Yellow or a Safety Car intervention.

Lap 131 saw the first Safety Car after Matt Payne hit the wall at The Cutting. Most of the field elected to pit for tyres and fuel. Roll bar adjustments for Feeney and Kostecki, who had seen a 10 second lead cut in half before Payne’s accident.

The three lap intervention represented a ‘reset button’ for a 27 lap sprint to the finish. Whilst it eroded what remained of Kostecki’s lead, it also presented a window of opportunity to tune up the cars for the sprint to the flag; an option taken by both Kostecki and Feeney.

As the green flag waved Kostecki came under immediate pressure from Feeney, with Brown, Waters, Stanaway, Mostert, Murray, Le Brocq and De Pasquale running line astern.

Given Feeney’s rate of progress over the preceding laps, it was considered just a matter of time before a potential challenge for the lead.

Though it never really happened.

Brodie Kostecki was masterful in managing the gap, recording consistently fast laps with millimetre accuracy across the top of the mountain, whilst conserving enough tyre life to get him to the finish line.

Only Broc Feeney could match the race leader’s pace, hovering at around a half-a-second from a win, though never really close enough for a possible dive. Feeney eventually conceded to the Chiko Roll Camaro falling back to just over a second behind at the flag.

Will Brown and Scott Pye claimed third, some thirteen seconds from Kostecki, while Cameron Waters/ James Moffat and Chaz Mostert/Lee Holdsworth completed the Top 5.

Cooper Murray and Craig Lowndes had been amongst the lead group in the latter stages of the race, only to come undone with a Safety Car infringement. The subsequent penalty saw the pair end up on fourteenth after what had an excellent drive from the pairing blended in youth and experience.

I don’t think its quite sunk in set, Ask me tomorrow,” Kostecki said.

“I never doubted my ability and there were a few flashes of form earlier in the season. I think that the speed has become more consistent as the year progressed.”

“George told me we were good,” Kostecki explained of that final stop. “We put a little bit more in as I knew I’d be pushing my own air.”

For teammate Todd Hazelwood the Bathurst win has fulfilled a childhood dream and justified the decision to move away from a full time drive for a co-driver role in a front running team.

SEE THE FULL BATHURST GALLERY HERE

“We’ll definitely have a few Chico rolls tonight and maybe a few spritzers,” Todd Hazelwood said

“Everyone has their own story, but its been well documented how my parents and sister have worked so hard to finance my motorsport. Selling sausages, developing a support team.”

“I hated the stat of numerous Supercars starts and no wins. Today was a bit robotic, heads down and bums up. I’ve never doubted myself, there’s been a few who have doubted and that’s okay.”

“I made the decision to step away from a full-time drive to focus on two races where I had a chance of race wins.”

“Brodie and I lived together for a while when he returned from States. There was no other driver I wanted to team with. I know how hard he works behind the scenes and how methodical he is.”

SEE THE FULL BATHURST GALLERY HERE

For Will Brown, whilst admittedly disappointed with a third places trophy, he acknowledged that it was the best that he could muster and wasn’t a case of maintaining his championship lead.

“The last stint was on and their (Kostecki and Hazelwood) pace was fast,” Will Brown said of Kostecki and Feeney

“I don’t want to go around and just race for points; that’s how you lose a championship. I’ve never been in this position before.”

SUBSCRIBE TO VELOCITY MAGAZINE

For all our news keep your eyes peeled on the Velocity Magazine website and social media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for our daily updates and to get the latest edition of our glossy magazine subscribe here from just $55 for 12 months subscription.

GET OUR LATEST ISSUE NUMBER 51 HERE