Brodie Kostecki has won the Bathurst 1000 in a Chevrolet Camaro. Photo: WWW.PHOTOSPORT.NZ
Brodie Kostecki has taken the Bathurst 1000, holding out Broc Feeney in a stirring battle, with Richie Stanaway the best of the Kiwis in ninth place.
Kostecki and co-driver Todd Hazelwood led for almost all the 161 laps in their Chevrolet Camaro, with Feeney and co-driver Jamie Whincup mounting a serious challenge over the last 20 laps but just not able to get past the leaders.
It was the fastest ever Bathurst 1000, with Kostecki taking the King of the Mountains title in 5 hours 58 minutes and 3 seconds for Erebus Motorsport. The winning margin was 1.349 seconds.
"I can't believe it," Kostecki, last year's Supercars champion, said.
"This guy here [Hazelwood] here did a stellar job the whole week.
"I knew we had a faster car.
"I just can't believe it. I'm in awe."
Will Brown and Scott Pye were third to make it an all-Chevrolet podium.
Richie Stanaway finished ninth in the Bathurst 1000. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Defending champion Stanaway, who won the race with Shane van Gisbergen last year, was the best of the six Kiwi drivers, finishing ninth with co-driver Dale Wood in the Ford Mustang. Stanaway, who started fourth on the grid, powered into second early, and was mostly in fifth or sixth place before having fuel issues in the dying stages.
The all-New Zealand combination of Ryan Wood and Fabian Coulthard finished 15th, one place ahead of Andre Heimgartner.
Wood had been looking at a top-10 finish but went too wide on lap 143 and stalled his car before getting back into action.
Kiwi Matt Payne's chances of a top-10 finish dramatically ended in lap 132 of the 161-lap race when his car went out of control and came to rest against the right-hand wall at The Cutting
"Sorry guys, it just wouldn't downshift", 22-year-old Payne told his team.
That incident brought out the safety car for the only time in the race, with Feeney cutting into Kostecki's lead and adding to the excitement. Payne was the only driver not to finish the race.
The other Kiwi in the race, Jaxon Evans, finished 20th.
Kostecki, the defending Supercars champion finished second at Mt Panorama last year, but had not won the Bathurst 1000 before. Feeney too was chasing his first win, though his co-driver Whincup has won the big race four times.
Kostecki had opted out of the opening six Supercars rounds this season after a row with his team's owners, with Hazelwood replacing him.
The race drew a crowd of 193,219.
- RNZ Sport/ABC