Gold Coast Supercars: Reynolds defeats Kostecki to end victory drought

After a stirring battle with Brodie Kostecki’s Erebus Chevrolet Camaro, Reynolds and his Grove Racing Ford Mustang prevailed by the narrow margin of 0.18s.

The Grove Racing driver drove a clever race, settling into second place and seizing the lead when he had a shorter second fuel stop than Kostecki. But Kostecki regained the lead with 10 laps to go, only to make a mistake and allow Reynolds back to the front.

The complexion of the race changed completely with a Safety Car with seven laps remaining, after fourth-placed James Golding crashed the PremiAir Chevrolet Camaro at the Chicane and Scott Pye found the track blocked when he arrived in the Team18 Camaro. That left a three-lap dash to the flag and, in spite of some nose-to-tail contact, Reynolds held on to take the victory.

“My car was really good in the first two stints but not so good over the final bit,” said Reynolds, whose last Supercars win came five years ago on the streets of Newcastle.

“He definitely was pushing me, I thought I was going to get crashed! It was a really hard-fought race, I loved it.”

Kostecki had to be content with second and maintaining his series points lead.

“I really wanted a surfboard! They just beat us on strategy but the car had amazing speed,” Kostecki said, referring to the traditional Gold Coast winners’ trophies.

“It’s just what the doctor ordered. I felt it was a disadvantage to be the lead car and I was able to use that on Dave. Awesome weekend, to come away with the same gap going to Adelaide. I kept getting reminded on the radio, I can understand why they [his team] were getting on the radio during the race.”

David Reynolds, Grove Racing Ford Mustang GT (Photo by: Edge Photographics)

Third was a solid result for Cam Waters. Saturday’s race winner started on the fourth row of the grid after his Tickford Mustang found the escape road and picked his way through the field, holding out the second Grove Racing Mustang for the final spot on the podium.

“I got a bad sportsmanship flag and from then on, I was just trying to keep it off the kerbs,” Waters explained. “We have definitely taken a step forwards, the aero stuff going rearwards definitely helped us as well.”

Waters was one of four drivers to experience setbacks during a chaotic Top 10 Shootout, in which two drivers (Shane van Gisbergen and Anton De Pasquale) were nabbed for kerb strikes and Will Brown (Erebus Camaro) crashed at the first chicane.

For the second day in a row van Gisbergen clearly played the long game, after starting from the fifth row of the grid, the consequence of a rare mistake (exceeding track limits) consigning him to a Row 5 grid position.

He picked his way through to sixth in the first half of the race and gained a position from Golding, but by the end of the race he could not find a way past Gold Coast rookie Matt Payne (Grove Racing Ford) and had to settle for fifth place.

Kostecki’s second place means that after a hard-fought weekend he will go to the final two races of the season on the streets of Adelaide with the same 131-point lead over van Gisbergen that he took to the Gold Coast. On 2696 points, he leads van Gisbergen on 2565, with Brown third (but now out of mathematical title contention) on 2201.

The final two races of the Supercars season will take place in Adelaide on 25-26 November.

Race results:

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data

     

Driver Info		Main Information Additional Data
Cla	Driver		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	Retirement	Points
1	D. Reynolds Penrite Racing		Ford Mustang GT	85	-			150
2	B. Kostecki Coca-Cola Racing by Erebus		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	85	+0.189 0.1889	0.189		138
3	C. Waters Tickford Racing		Ford Mustang GT	85	+2.870 2.8703	2.681		129
4	M. Payne Penrite Racing		Ford Mustang GT	85	+3.468 3.4683	0.598		120
5	S. van Gisbergen Red Bull Ampol Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	85	+4.884 4.8843	1.416		111
6	J. Golding Nulon Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	85	+5.714 5.7140	0.830		102
7	T. Randle Castrol Racing		Ford Mustang GT	85	+6.492 6.4922	0.778		96
8	B. Feeney Red Bull Ampol Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	85	+7.931 7.9309	1.439		90
9	M. Winterbottom Team 18		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	85	+9.237 9.2374	1.307		84
10	B. Fullwood Brad Jones Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	85	+9.714 9.7138	0.476		78
11	W. Brown Coca-Cola Racing by Erebus		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	85	+10.210 10.2097	0.496		72
12	N. Percat Walkinshaw Andretti United		Ford Mustang GT	85	+11.958 11.9578	1.748		69
13	C. Mostert Walkinshaw Andretti United		Ford Mustang GT	85	+12.737 12.7370	0.779		66
14	J. Le Brocq Truck Assist Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	85	+15.563 15.5625	2.826		63
15	C. Hill Truck Assist Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	85	+16.131 16.1314	0.569		60
16	W. Davison Dick Johnson Racing		Ford Mustang GT	85	+17.435 17.4348	1.303		57
17	A. Heimgartner Brad Jones Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	85	+27.126 27.1258	9.691		54
18	T. Hazelwood Brad Jones Racing		Ford Mustang GT	85	+39.764 39.7642	12.638		51
19	J. Smith SCT Logistics Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	84	1 lap			48
20	D. Fraser Tradie Racing		Ford Mustang GT	83	2 laps			45
21	A. De Pasquale Dick Johnson Racing		Ford Mustang GT	81	4 laps			42
	S. Pye Team 18		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	77			Retirement	39
	T. Slade Nulon Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	0			Retirement	36
	J. Courtney Tickford Racing		Ford Mustang GT	0			Retirement	33
	M. Jones Pizza Hut Racing		Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Gen3	0			Retirement	30
View full results

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