Brodie Kostecki has taken his third win of the weekend in a crash-shortened fourth and final Supercars race at the Albert Park Grand Prix circuit in Melbourne.
The Dick Johnson Racing Ford Mustang driver was piling the pressure onto Triple Eight’s Will Brown in the fight for the lead, forcing Brown into a mistake on the penultimate lap and seizing the lead to take a 1.75s win.
In doing so, Kostecki took not only the Larry Perkins Trophy for the round, but the points lead from the only other driver to win at Albert Park, Broc Feeney.
“What a fantastic weekend,” said Kostecki after his second LP trophy win. “I had the speed everywhere, I didn’t want to get too close to him to affect it. I knew in the last two laps I was going to put a big attack on.”
Brown put his recent run of bad results behind him with his second place.
“He [Kostecki] was the guy I was watching from the start, I thought if he got into second he was going to be tough,” said Brown – who actually shares a regular podcast with Kostecki. “He forced me into my own error. It’s on me, I am excited to get a result instead of all the carnage.”
Third place went to Tickford Racing’s Thomas Randle, who started from the front row of the grid and scored his first podium finish in nearly a year, making it a Ford 1-2-3.
Fourth place went to the best of the Chevrolet Camaros, this time the Matt Stone Racing Camaro of Jack Le Brocq, who moved up from eighth on the grid. ‘JLB’ finished ahead of Chaz Mostert, who stayed out of trouble and came from 12th on the grid in the Walkinshaw TWG Toyota GR Supra.
There was a huge crash at the start, as Ryan Wood and Kai Allen clashed on the run to the first corner, both cars suffering immediate flat tyres. In the midst of the melee from 11th on the grid Triple Eight’s Feeney spun and was hit but the Erebus Motorsport Chevrolet of Cooper Murray, spun around then hit by Zach Bates (Matt Stone Racing Chevrolet).
The points leader coming into the race was out on the spot and now, and the Triple Eight team faces a big job to get the wrecked car ready for the double-header in New Zealand, with sea freight schedules presenting a big challenge.
With his three wins Kostecki takes the championship points win on 485 points, ahead of Cam Waters (Tickford Racing) on 467. Feeney is now third on 455 ahead of Payne (412) and Anton De Pasquale (354) and Le Brocq (330).
The next round of the series is set for Taupo Motorsport Park in New Zealand, on 10-12 April.
Supercars Melbourne - Race 4 results
race4
| Cla | Driver | # | Car | Laps | Time | Interval | km/h | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
B. Kostecki Dick Johnson Racing
|
17 | Ford Mustang S650 | 13 |
30'47.4871 |
|||||
| 2 |  W. Brown Triple Eight Race Engineering |
888 | Ford Mustang S650 | 13 |
+1.7558 30'49.2429 |
1.7558 | ||||
| 3 | T. Randle Tickford Racing |
55 | Ford Mustang S650 | 13 |
+3.4953 30'50.9824 |
1.7395 | ||||
| 4 | J. Le Brocq Matt Stone Racing |
4 | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 13 |
+3.9325 30'51.4196 |
0.4372 | ||||
| 5 | J. Golding Blanchard Racing Team |
7 | Ford Mustang S650 | 13 |
+4.0896 30'51.5767 |
0.1571 | ||||
| 6 | C. Waters Tickford Racing |
6 | Ford Mustang S650 | 13 |
+5.4226 30'52.9097 |
1.3330 | ||||
| 7 |
J. Ojeda PremiAir Racing
|
31 | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 13 |
+5.6787 30'53.1658 |
0.2561 | ||||
| 8 | C. Mostert Walkinshaw TWG Racing |
1 | Toyota GR Supra | 13 |
+6.7211 30'54.2082 |
1.0424 | ||||
| 9 |
K. Allen Grove Racing
|
26 | Ford Mustang S650 | 13 |
+8.0532 30'55.5403 |
1.3321 | ||||
| 10 | M. Jones Brad Jones Racing |
96 | Toyota GR Supra | 13 |
+9.8504 30'57.3375 |
1.7972 | ||||
| 11 |
D. Fraser PremiAir Racing
|
777 | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 13 |
+10.9753 30'58.4624 |
1.1249 | ||||
| 12 | A. De Pasquale Team 18 |
18 | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 13 |
+11.6256 30'59.1127 |
0.6503 | ||||
| 13 |
C. Hill Brad Jones Racing
|
14 | Toyota GR Supra | 13 |
+12.2099 30'59.6970 |
0.5843 | ||||
| 14 |
R. Gray Dick Johnson Racing
|
38 | Ford Mustang S650 | 13 |
+16.5073 31'03.9944 |
4.2974 | ||||
| 15 |  A. Heimgartner Brad Jones Racing |
800 | Toyota GR Supra | 13 |
+16.5883 31'04.0754 |
0.0810 | ||||
| 16 |
J. Walls Triple Eight Race Engineering
|
11 | Ford Mustang S650 | 13 |
+17.1441 31'04.6312 |
0.5558 | ||||
| 17 | D. Reynolds Team 18 |
20 | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 13 |
+19.6752 31'07.1623 |
2.5311 | ||||
| 18 |
J. Stewart Erebus Motorsport Penrite
|
9 | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 13 |
+20.2158 31'07.7029 |
0.5406 | ||||
| 19 |
A. Cameron Blanchard Racing Team
|
3 | Ford Mustang S650 | 13 |
+1'12.2872 31'59.7743 |
52.0714 | ||||
| 20 |
M. Payne Grove Racing
|
19 | Ford Mustang S650 | 13 |
+1'17.9864 32'05.4735 |
5.6992 | ||||
| 21 |
R. Wood Walkinshaw TWG Racing
|
2 | Toyota GR Supra | 12 |
+1 Lap 31'20.1088 |
1 Lap | ||||
|
B. Feeney Triple Eight Race Engineering
|
88 | Ford Mustang S650 | 0 |
|
||||||
|
Z. Bates Matt Stone Racing
|
10 | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 0 |
|
||||||
|
C. Murray Erebus Motorsport Penrite
|
99 | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 0 |
|
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| View full results | ||||||||||
