THE Shell V-Power Racing Team will fight for the title at the Adelaide Grand Final courtesy of Brodie Kostecki’s fighting victory on Saturday at the Sandown 500.
Clever fuel strategy in the Safety Car-interrupted race allied to several bold moves on track netted Brodie his ninth win of the season, as well as locking him in as one of the four championship contenders heading into the last round of 2027 under the Repco Supercars Finals Series system.
Starting third, Brodie lost a couple of spots off the line but picked one back prior to the race’s first Safety Car period on lap 13. The full field pitted for its first stops, with the Shell V-Power Racing Team crew short-filling Car 17 on fuel to vault it to second place behind Will Brown.
Brodie spent much of the next stint battling his fellow Mustang pilot for the lead while simultaneously holding off a host of Finals contenders lined up behind him. He hit the lead on lap 36 with a big pass at Turn 1, Brown spinning a few corners later while trying to take the lead back.
Another Safety Car on lap 39 triggered the second round of pitstops and, despite needing to take on more fuel than his rivals, the team once again slightly short-filled him in order to maintain track position. Again Car 17 rejoined in second place, this time behind Cam Waters.
Brodie struck a couple of laps after the Safety Car restart with a bold move at the end of the back straight to take the lead back. Once there, he spent several laps saving enough fuel to make the finish, before going on to take the chequered flag by just over five seconds from championship leader Matt Payne and Waters.
Rylan lined up 21st on the grid and lost a couple of spots on the start, but moved forward to be up to 19th when the first Safety Car came out. He then gained a few more spots during the next stint to be 17th when the race’s second and final Safety Car came out.
A quick stop vaulted him to 12th, but faded in the latter stages of the long final stint to cross the line 17th, which became 15th in the final results once post-race time penalties were applied to rivals ahead.
Brodie’s win elevates him to second in the standings, just 42 behind Payne. Standings order is important at the end of tomorrow’s race with the four finalists’ points reset to 5000, with bonus points applied on top depending on their position:
P1: 5150 points
P2: 5120 points (+30)
P3: 5096 points (+54)
P4: 5078 points (+72)
Rylan’s result consolidates 19th place in the drivers standings while the team remains fifth in the Teams Championship standings, just 78 points shy of Walkinshaw TWG Racing but 335 ahead of Team 18.
The Shell V-Power Mustangs are back on track at 11:20am AEDT on Sunday for a three-part qualifying session that will determine the grid for Race 34 at 3:30pm AEDT.
