EDITOR’S NOTE: The Bathurst 1000 airs on SPEED SPORT 1 on tape-delay at 10:00 a.m. ET for FREE.
Below is the full race report of the event.
BATHURST, Australia — Brodie Kostecki won an exciting Repco Bathurst 1000 at Mt. Panorama over Broc Feeney after an exciting 28-lap sprint to the checkered flag.
Will Brown claimed third in the Redbull Ampol Racing Camaro, holding the Supercars championship lead in the process.
Cam Waters and Chas Mostert battled for the fourth-place finish with Waters holding the advantage.
The 2023 Supercars champion went one place better than last year in winning the race.
Kostecki, the 26-year-old driver from Perth of the Chico/Erebus Racing Chev Camaro and his co-driver Todd Hazelwood, led for the entire 161 laps.
Feeney, the 21-year-old from the Gold Coast and his co-driver Jamie Wincup, at the wheel of the Redbull Ampol Camaro, finished just over a second behind Kostecki.
“I knew we had a fast car all weekend,” said Kostecki after the race. “I knew Broc also had a fast car, but we managed to stay on top. It is redemption for last year.”
“The pace was very fast all day,” added Hazelwood after the fastest Bathurst 1000 ever – 5 hours 58.03 seconds
Notes
The Bathurst 1000 is billed as Australia’s Great Race – and this year’s edition of the race didn’t disappoint: from some of the pre-race favorites badly damaging their cars in practice to a 600-mile feature that went 132 laps without a safety car, before becoming a 28-lap sprint to the checker.
Raced over 600 miles — up and down Mt. Panorama at Bathurst, 125 miles west of Sydney — the event attracted 200,000 fans for the annual shootout.
It was the 64th running of the annual Ford vs General Motors (Holden) battle, first run on the Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit in 1960, before moving to Mt Panorama in 1963.
The race was won by Shane van Gisbergen in 2023, the third of his wins in the race.
Final results
The only race stoppage resulted in a 28-lap dash to the checker.
With 14 laps to race, the margin between the leaders was just 0.9 seconds. With the leaders putting down their fastest laps of the race, Kostecki and Feeney had their Camaros at the limit of their performance.
Brown was holding down third, six seconds off the duel for victory. The order didn’t change in the last 28-laps. All but one car finished the race.
The race
Kostecki won the start to lead the first 25 laps, ahead of Feeney and Brown. Feeney began brilliantly, flying down the inside to outpace Waters into the first corner and charging up Mountain Strait side-by-side with the polesitter.
Ten seconds in arrear of the leading duo was Brown after the first 25 laps.
After running as high as second, Richie Stanaway settled in fourth position.
With pit stops and driver changes coming in the second hour, Hazelwood, substituting for Kostecki, maintained the lead ahead of Whicup (and Feeney) and Scott Pye, driving with Brown.
The most impressive move was from 18th to fifth by Cooper Murray in the Graig Lowndes (Supercheap Auto Camaro).
By the end of the third hour of racing, Kostecki had extended the lead in the Erebus Motorsport Chev Camaro to 16 seconds over Wincup, Brown and Jack Le Brocq. Waters was also on the move driving to fifth in the Monster Castrol Racing Ford Mustang.
With 40 laps to complete, Kostecki’s advantage was 9.3 seconds.
The safety car came out on lap 132 when Matt Payne hit the wall on turn three, allowing teams to make their final pit stop. The enduro became a 28 lap sprint to the checker.
Kostecki led Feeney, Brown, Waters and Stanaway at the restart on lap 135.
Practice carnage
The first practice day produced carnage on the track, especially at the super fast esses and the steep drop from the top of the mountain.
A series of drivers slammed into the wall, wreaking significant damage which resulted in significant rebuilds overnight.
Matt Payne (Penrite Racing Ford Mustang) topped the times for the first practice session, stopping the clocks at 2.07.394 for the 3.88 mile charge up and down the mountain. With a 572 foot gain in elevation from the lowest to highest point, he outpaced Waters and Brown.
The second was claimed by Wincup, who stopped the clocks at 2.07.4788 ahead of Cooper Murray and Jayden Ojeda.
Feeney was the fastest around the circuit in 2.06.7842 in the third session leading Randle and Courtney.
Kostecki ran a fast 2.06.1820 in the fourth heading Cam Walter’s and Feeney.
The fifth was claimed by Murray in 2.07.0951 from James Moffat and Odjeda.
The final practice went to Feeney in 2.06.1274 from Stanaway and Le Brocq.
Pole shootout
Kostecki produced the fastest lap in the top ten shootout to take pole with a 2:05.5119, which was 0.1310s clear of Waters in the Monster Castrol Racing Ford.
The only other driver to record a 2:05 second time was Feeney, while Stanaway rose from 10th to fourth.
Grid
Kostecki put Erebus Motorsport Camaro on pole for the second consecutive year.
Waters (Monster Ford Mustang) was on the front row once again after three previous podiums with Moffat.
Others in the top five included the Triple Eight team cars of Feeney/Whincup and Brown/Pye.