ALWAYS believe in yourself.
That was Brodie Kostecki’s simple message after securing the 2023 Supercars Championship title on Saturday at the Adelaide 500.
In just his third year in the category – and less than eight months since his first career race win – the 26-year-old drove the #99 Erebus Camaro into a place in history.
“It’s an awesome feeling to be the champion-elect,” he said, having finished a conservative sixth in the race after rival Shane van Gisbergen was taken out on the opening lap.
“I’ve always believed in myself, and my grandfather always believed in me, I’d love for him to be here in this moment.
“It’s honestly a surreal feeling. All the kids that are racing go-karts back at home, always believe in yourself and put in 110 percent and you can be like me some day.
“It’s a pretty cool feeling.”
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It was a rare offering of sentimentality from stern and hard-edged racer Kostecki, who otherwise barely broke character amid his monumental career moment.
Kostecki addressed the post-race press conference in a typically matter-of-fact manner, only cracking a smile after a cheeky prompt from David Reynolds.
As Kostecki opines, he’s not lacked self-belief on his journey to the top. But what his determination and obvious talent needed was opportunities.
Having spent his teenage years racing short-track ovals in the United States, Kostecki embarked on his Supercars journey via the Super2 Series in 2017.
After a single year in an aging Matt Stone Racing Falcon FG, he rose to race winner as third wheel in the Kostecki Brothers Racing team that had been set up for his cousins.
While that also led to a trio of main game wildcards, he reached a crossroads at the end of 2019 and thanks Eggleston Motorsport owners Ben and Rachael for saving his career.
That story, shared by Ben Eggleston with V8 Sleuth earlier this weekend, was reiterated by Kostecki in the aftermath of his title win.
MORE: How Kostecki career lifeline saved an ATCC-winning car
“I called Ben and Rachael and said, ‘I don’t really have any money, and I don’t have a place to stay either, so I want to go racing, but obviously, it costs money’,” he said.
“But they were really good to me and gave me an opportunity and obviously I was able to come here in 2020 and win (the Super2 round) in Adelaide.
“I got signed with Erebus that year to co-drive with Anton (De Pasquale) and that sort of kicked off my career, and that all falls back to just having good people around me.”
He also spoke of mentor Paul Morris and manager Nathan Cayzer, both of whom have steered him through recent years.
“Paul Morris has been a massive part of my career,” he said.
“He’s guided me through this year and always seems to call me right at the right times, which is pretty cool.
“I just have a really good support system around me, which has been really beneficial to make good decisions and not make bad ones.”
But did Kostecki always believe that he could make it to the Supercars summit?
“I honestly didn’t let myself look that far ahead, I was just trying to survive each week, try and get my car to the race track and find funding,” he said.
Kostecki, of course, only opened up on these topics with direct prompting.
His immediate thoughts after the race surrounded how to make his car faster for tomorrow, when he’ll attempt to help Erebus secure the teams’ championship.
“I didn’t want to win it today like how I won,” he said, noting that teammate Will Brown’s car copped heavy damage in the opening lap incident that took out van Gisbergen.
“It was a pretty unfortunate scenario with Will (crashing) and Shane clipping him as well, but it’s racing, things happen sometimes.
“I’ll go into tomorrow swinging, we’ve got a bit of work to do.”
