Kostecki edges Randle in Race 2 at The Bend

BRODIE Kostecki has made it two-from-two at The Bend in what is shaping up to be a stellar weekend for his Supercars championship campaign.

As is often the case at The Bend, the outside line proved advantageous at the start, with Kostecki sweeping around the outside of polesitter Thomas Randle at Turn 1.

Randle though did not give up the fight, applying the blowtorch as he followed within half a second for many laps.

Back in the mid-pack there was trouble at Turn 6 as Jack Le Brocq blotted his copybook with a Lap 1 lunge gone wrong.

Le Brocq clattered into the side of Cam Waters, who in turn bounced into Will Davison on the outside, all three spinning.

Le Brocq and Waters were forced to visit the garage with steering damage, falling off the lead lap, while Davison was able to keep going – despite a loose left-side door – before pitting as soon as the CPS window opened at the end of Lap 3.

Le Brocq was eventually issued a drive-through penalty, not that that made much difference to his race.

The running order stabilised with Kostecki leading from Randle, Shane van Gisbergen, Matt Payne and a fast-starting David Reynolds.

Grove Racing went aggressive with strategy on Reynolds’ #26 Penrite Mustang, bringing him in on Lap 6.

Reynolds capitalised to undercut both Payne and van Gisbergen, putting him in the box seat for a podium.

The rest of the lead pack pitted between Laps 8 and 11, with the order now reading: Kostecki, Randle, Reynolds, van Gisbergen, Payne.

Chaz Mostert leapt up into the top five with a post-pitstop overtake on Payne into Turn 1 while van Gisbergen closed in on Reynolds.

That battle reached a climax on Lap 18 of 20 as van Gisbergen twice shaped to dive down the inside of Reynolds, experiencing a big lock-up on the second occasion.

That saw SVG suddenly come under pressure from Mostert, who was soon able to make a move stick to grab fourth.

That allowed Reynolds some breathing room, but Mostert did not relent, and the two-time Bathurst 1000 winner snatched third on the very last lap.

All the while, Randle maintained pressure on Kostecki, but was left to trail the #99 Coca-Cola Camaro across the finish line at 1.0687s adrift.

Behind fourth-placed Reynolds, van Gisbergen just held off Payne for fifth.

Anton De Pasquale, Bryce Fullwood, Broc Feeney and Andre Heimgartner rounded out the top 10.

Nick Percat was 12th after yet another slow pitstop, while Will Brown was 13th after being chewed up in a battle with Feeney.

Joining Waters and Le Brocq in finishing outside the 20 were Jack Smith, Davison and James Golding.

Smith was forced to take avoiding action in the opening lap melee at Turn 6, while Golding’s Nulon Camaro picked up front-right damage early.

Despite some front-end issues, Kostecki also picked up five bonus points for fastest lap.

He now leads the championship by 111 points from van Gisbergen, with Feeney and Brown losing further ground.

Kostecki is on pole position for Race 3 of the weekend, which will start at 3:50pm local time (4:20pm AEST).

Results: Race 2, 2023 OTR SuperSprint