A PODIUM finish for Brodie Kostecki on Sunday at the Gold Coast 500 has continued the Shell V-Power Racing Team’s run through the Repco Supercars Finals Series.
Brodie brought home a fighting second place in Race 32 – team’s first Gold Coast podium in the Gen3 era – with Rylan Gray completing a quietly impressive debut weekend at Surfers Paradise with a drive from the tail of the field to 15th place.
Sunday started with a three-part qualifying session held in wet conditions, with Dunlop’s rain tyres used throughout.
Brodie made the cut through Part 1 by just 0.1211s and secured a Top 10 Shootout berth with third place in Part 2. Come the one-lap flyers, Car 17 wound up fourth with the fastest opening sector of all. Rylan didn’t progress beyond Part 1 and lined up 23rd for the race.
In contrast to Saturday’s rain-affected affair, the 85-lap finale was held in dry weather throughout.
Brodie found himself trapped in fourth place in the opening stages behind Aaron Cameron, but an early first pit stop on lap 19 cleared Brodie’s path to charge forward. Will Brown was his first victim via a crucial pass just after the fellow Ford driver’s stop, a move that allowed him to begin chasing down race leader Broc Feeney.
He brought the lead down from several seconds to under one, but differing fuel strategies meant Brodie’s deficit expanded out to just over two seconds after their final pit visits.
While he brought Car 17 back within range, a broken splitter courtesy of a chicane tyre bundle was compounded by a bad sportsmanship flag that prompted a more conservative approach through the chicanes overall. The combination left Brodie to settle for a comfortable second place finish.
Rylan made ground immediately from the back row, but went back to the tail of the field by pitting under the race’s sole early Safety Car to top off the fuel tank for greater strategy flexibility.
It made for a long next stint, with just five cars ahead of him by the time he headed to the lane for a second time on lap 31.
Resuming in 19th place, Rylan again ran a long stint – to the point that Car 38 briefly took the lead of the race on lap 64. Right behind was race leader Feeney and teammate Brodie; both found their way past by the time Rylan headed to the pits at the end of the lap for his third and final stop.
A strong final stint allowed him to bring the gap to Anton De Pasquale ahead down from 10 seconds to under four, Rylan taking the chequered flag on the lead lap in 15th.
Brodie’s podium finish enshrines him as the third seed for the next phase of Repco Supercars Finals, while Rylan retains 19th in the Drivers Championship standings.
The Shell V-Power Mustangs will next be in action at the Sandown 500 on November 6-8 at Sandown International Motor Raceway.
