SATURDAY was a successful day at the Ipswich Super 440 for the Shell V-Power Racing Team.
Brodie Kostecki notched up his seventh win of the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship in Race 26, before backing it up with a fighting second place in Race 27.
Rylan Gray showed his continuing progression with another top-10 qualifying performance that was backed up by a career-best finish in Race 26.
Here’s how the day played out.
Qualifying for Race 26
A two-part session on Dunlop’s Soft tyre, and both Shell V-Power Mustangs qualified inside the top 10!
Brodie landed second place, just 0.0255s shy of pole after topping Part 1 by over quarter of a second.
Rylan netted a equal career-best qualifying result of eighth, having cleared the cut line in Part 1 by 0.1291s with the sixth-fastest time. That result matches the eighth place he achieved last time out in Perth, which became seventh after grid penalties were taken into account.
Qualifying for Race 27
Another two-part session, this time on Dunlop’s Super Soft tyre.
Brodie once again claimed second place, this time pipped by 0.0683s by Payne having again been fastest through Part 1.
Rylan missed advancing to Part 2 by just 0.0020s, resulting in an 11th starting position for Race 27.
Race 26
Brodie took a commanding victory, while Rylan took a hard-fought seventh place after battling an engine issue for much of the race.
With second grid spot sitting on the racing line, Brodie beat Payne into Turn 1 and commanded the race from there.
A clever strategy call meant Brodie took on only three tyres when he made his compulsory pit stop, one lap after Payne stopped to take four tyres.
Fast pit work by the Shell V-Power Racing Team crew ensured Brodie rejoined the race ahead of Payne, but a miscommunication with Team 18 would later draw a 30-point penalty and $3,000 fine ($1,500 suspended) over Kostecki driving through that squad’s pit bay on exit.
Once back on track, he quickly worked his way past the earlier-stopping Kai Allen and Chaz Mostert to claim the victory. The win was his seventh of the season and the 158th in team history, and his first with team founder Dick Johnson trackside.
“Feels fantastic. It’s obviously only a sprint race but it means a lot to me to win here in front of DJ,” Brodie said.
“I just want to thank everyone at the Shell V-Power Racing Team. We’ve got a lot of people here from the workshop and obviously our core group that travel. Big thank you to all of them for coming out and supporting us.”
Rylan made up a spot on the opening lap by running around the outside of Thomas Randle at Turn 3 and ran comfortably in seventh through the first stint, but suffered an exhaust cam actuator problem when the car returned to the track after his lap-16 pit stop.
The issue left him down on power for the rest of the 39-lap race, but he drove well to hang onto seventh place to the finish – the best result of his young Supercars career to date.
Rapid engine change on Car 38
The decision was made to change Car 38’s engine between races – a feat that was completed with just 53 seconds to spare before pit exit closed ahead of Race 27.
“It was a massive relief,” Rylan said. “A massive thank you to the pit crew, they’re one of the best in pit lane. They got the job done. I’ll definitely have to buy them a couple of cases of beer later.”
Race 27
A wild race ended with Brodie once again on the podium and Rylan left to rue what might have been.
Brodie took the lead from Payne in the early stages, and a similar scenario to Race 26 played out after the pit stops. Car 17 took four tyres and resumed ahead of Payne but behind Allen, who again only took on left-hand-side tyres.
Sensing his opportunity, Brodie attempted to pass Allen at Turn 3 on lap 22 but ran wide and lost spots to Payne and Will Brown.
“I made a meal of it and got on the dirty part of the road and locked the rears,” Brodie said. “I almost ended up in the gravel. That race is on me; gave that one away.”
A pair of Safety Car periods compressed the field, allowing Brodie to repass Payne. He then followed Brown past Allen on a restart, only to find himself edged off the road at Turn 3 by his good friend as they battled over the lead.
While he fended off Broc Feeney to retain second, he ran out of laps to catch back up to Brown.
Rylan gained a spot on the start to be 10th down the back straight, only wind up off the road at Turn 3 after trying to pass Cooper Murray around the outside.
He rejoined last but quickly regained places to be 19th by lap 10, then ran as high as second amid a shift to a late pit stop strategy.
However, he locked the brakes and slid off at Turn 3 on lap 24, triggering a Safety Car when he became bogged in the gravel. He lost three laps being extracted and took the chequered flag in 25th.
Brodie now sits fourth in the Repco Supercars Championship standings, 333 points off the lead, while Rylan has moved up to 19th place, and the Shell V-Power Racing Team continues to sit sixth in the Team Championship standings.
Our Shell V-Power Mustangs are back on track tomorrow for Qualifying for Race 28 gets underway at 10:55am AEST, followed by Race 28 at 3:20pm AEST.
