Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood led a Ford sweep in the first endurance race of the Supercars season at The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia.
The two drivers scored the win over the 500km race in their Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang and, in doing so, the pair achieved a unique distinction, as in the previous Supercars endurance race they won last year’s Bathurst 1000 for a different team, Erebus Motorsport, and in a different car, a Chevrolet Camaro.
This time they led home a Ford podium sweep, with Cameron Waters and Mark Winterbottom second for Tickford Racing ahead of Matt Payne and Garth Tander in third for Grove Racing.
Waters made the 2023 champion work hard for the win, pushing him at the start at the final stint before falling back, in the end to a margin of 3.01s.
“The car was a little bit nervous on entry into the corners,” said a delighted Kostecki after his 10th career win. “He [Hazelwood] gave us a good margin in the race, we tuned it up and I was able to manage the gap to Cam.”
Hazelwood had to overcome a bad start to get into the lead: “I didn’t get off the line too well but I knew I had a great car underneath me. I just tried to be patient.”
Will Brown and Scott Pye took fourth place on what was a difficult day for Triple Eight; Pye made good ground early after starting from 16th on the grid but in a Chevrolet that never quite looked fast enough to challenge for the podium the pair had to settle for best of the rest.
Broc Feeney, Triple Eight Race Engineering Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
Photo by: Edge Photographics
In the other Triple Eight car Jamie Whinup led away from the pole position secured by Broc Feeney, before Hazelwood swept by to build a small gap. But the opening pitstop was a disaster for Triple Eight; a fuel coupling failed to connect properly, putting only a quarter of a tank into the car before he departed.
As a result, Whincup had to return for fuel 10 laps later and dropped to 26th place. From there, Feeney was forced to make an extra stop and 19th place was all they could salvage.
Nick Percat and Tim Slade in the Matt Stone Racing entry took fifth, ahead of Ryan Wood and Jayden Ojeda in the Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford.
Cooper Murray was one of the few full-time drivers to start the race (as opposed to co-drivers) and took seventh place, sharing the Erebus Motorsport Chevrolet with rookie Jobe Stewart, ahead of Chaz Mostert and Fabian Coulthard, who started from eighth on the grid, made good early ground which saw Mostert to take the lead mid-race. But a four-stop strategy dropped them behind the three-stoppers and in the first 500km Supercars race with no safety cars in 35 years, so the best they could achieve was eighth.
Despite his tough day Feeney, who is already seeded into the Supercars Finals Series as a result of winning the Sprint Cup, continues to lead the points.
The 341-point lead he brought into the weekend has been cut to 158 by Payne, while Brown, Waters, Mostert and Kostecki are also all assured of making the top 10 and the Finals Series, which will determine the 2025 champion.
The next round of the championship, the second Enduro Cup race and the last event before the Finals Cup cut-off, will be the Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama, on 9-12 October.
Supercars The Bend – Race results
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