ANOTHER podium and a double top-10 finish capped a solid home round for the Shell V-Power Racing Team at Queensland Raceway.
Brodie Kostecki took a fighting second place in Race 28 of the Ipswich Super 440 to secure his place in the Repco Supercars Finals, while Rylan Gray took his second top-10 finish of the weekend with eighth place after making the second Top 10 Shootout of his career.
Here’s how the day played out.
Qualifying for Race 28
A three-part qualifying session on Dunlop’s Soft tyre, and both Shell V-Power Mustangs made it through to the Top 10 Shootout.
Brodie secured fourth on the grid in the one-lap session, setting a time that was faster than his efforts in regular qualifying - impressive given Car 17 has generally been doing its faster time on the second flying lap this weekend.
“Honestly, quite surprised that we were able to do it on the first lap then,” Brodie said. “We’ve been struggling all week to do it on the first lap, so stoked George (Commins, race engineer) was able to make some changes there and get the Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford Mustang a bit better.”
Rylan made the cut for his second career Top 10 Shootout by 0.0482s with a tidy lap right at the end of Part 2, then put in a solid Shootout lap on used tyres to remain 10th.
Race 28
Brodie fought his way to second place, helped by good strategy and fast pit work.
He kept in touch with the leaders in fourth through the early stint and ran longer than those ahead of him to get a tyre advantage, which allowed him to pass both Kai Allen and Will Brown in the next stint to move to second.
He then started carving down Broc Feeney’s eight-second lead. Brodie got the gap under five seconds before his pit stop.
However, a lack of blue flags for slower traffic ahead of both pitstops proved costly, and Feeney held a one-second advantage after the final stops that proved insurmountable. The result also came despite bent steering on Car 17, courtesy of the Turn 5 apex kerb during the race.
Rylan’s run to eighth place also came the hard way. He made up a spot off the start, but found himself bundled down to 14th after being held out wide at Turn 2 on lap 2.
He quickly picked off Jack Le Brocq, then ran down David Reynolds to sit 12th when he pitted for the first time.
Clear air and pit strategy, plus retirements from Chaz Mostert and Matt Payne, meant Rylan was eighth after the final stops and he held that position to the flag.
Brodie ends the Sprint Cup phase of the season third in the standings. He scored the most points of any driver in the Ipswich round and mathematically secured his place in the Repco Supercars Finals.
Rylan moves up to 18th place in the standings, just one point behind Aaron Cameron in 17th and second among the five rookies.
We’ve also gained a spot in the Teams Championship standings: we’re now in fifth place, three points ahead of Team 18. The double top-10 finish got us within two points, then Brodie’s five bonus points for setting the fastest lap of Race 28 moved us ahead.
The Shell V-Power Mustangs are back on track at Queensland Raceway on Tuesday for the pre-Ryco Enduro Cup test day and then again on Wednesday for a ride day.
After that, it’s eyes forward to The Bend 500 on September 11-13 at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park, where we are the reigning victors.
