Hi to all you Supercars Fans around the world!
On the weekend of the 19 – 20 of August 2023 was the OTR Supersprint at The Bend.
The Tailem Bend racetrack was first opened in 2017 and is the youngest circuit in Australia. The Bend Motorsports Park is also known by its sponsorship name Shell V-Power Motorsport Park.
The Bend first hosted a V8-Supercars championship round in 2018 and has staged Supercars racing ever since. This includes two rounds during the Covid affected 2020 season.
This year’s round 8, the OTR Supersprint at “The Bend” was a significant round in the history books of the Australian Touring Car Championship – Supercars Championship. It was the 600th round of the championship since starting 63 years ago in 1960.
In the pre-race sessions for this years’ event:
- Thomas Randle was fastest in Practice 1
- Broc Feeney was fastest in Practice 2
- Brodie Kostecki was fastest in Qualifying
In Race 20 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position and alongside him was Thomas Randle.
At the start of the race Thomas Randle got the jump and led into turn 1 for the first of the quick 20 laps.
As the rest of the pack came through turn 1 Jack Le Brocq made contact with Will Brown and chaos broke loose. Will Brown was spun around and tightly packed cars behind were going in all directions to avoid colliding with him. Some we simply unlucky, Jack Smith and Cameron Hill ploughed straight into him. Somehow Mark Winterbottom who was directly behind them missed the carnage.
The safety car was immediately despatched to clean up the mess. The three cars of Will Brown, Jack Smith and Cameron Hill were removed from the track unable to return and received a Not Complete (NC).
The officials had a look at the incident and decided to take no further action so no one was penalised.
The restart was on lap 5 and it was the cars outside of the top 10 that were dicing for position.
The first cars to pit were Broc Feeney, James Courtney, Bryce Fullwood and Jack le Brocq on lap 6.
The leaders stayed out to maintain their track position while the going was good.
Brodie Kostecki passed Chaz Mostert for 2nd place. He was now only 0.588 seconds off the race lead, Thomas Randle.
In the middle of the race Andre Heimgartner pitted from 10th place. No one else followed him into the pits.
Brodie Kostecki soon found the opportunity and passed Thomas Randle for the lead. Thomas Randle and Chaz Moster knew it was a losing battle to try and chase the championship leader and all three pitted on lap 12. Macauley Jones also came in. There were now only 6 drivers yet to pit.
With 9 laps remaining the challenge was now on. Once the 6 cars ahead pitted Brodie Kostecki assumed the lead of the race with Thomas Randle and Chaz Mostert right behind him.
With 8 laps to go Cameron Waters, Shane Van Gisbergen and Nick Percat all pitted, only leaving 3 cars to pit.
The top three drivers kept their positions until the final laps when Chaz Mostert was able to pass Thomas Randle for 2nd place.
Even though the front runners were reasonably close together, on the last lap no one could catch Brodie Kostecki.
He crossed the line 1.71 seconds ahead of Chaz Mostert. He was followed by Thomas Randle and Cameron Waters.
Results for Race 20
1st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
2nd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
3rd Thomas Randle – Castrol Racing
In Race 21 Thomas Randle started on pole position for the first time since starting his full time Supercars career in 2022.
Brodie Kostecki started next to pole and led off the start line into turn 1 for the first of 20 laps. Shane Van Gisbergen who started 4th on the grid immediately moved up to 3rd place.
Meanwhile the cars further back in the pack were battling for places outside the top 10.
Inside the top 10 Will Davison, Cameron Waters and Jack le Brocq all got spun around at turn 6 which put them back in the running order. They dropped down to 22nd, 24th and 25th place.
Race control investigated the incident and not long after issued Jack le Brocq with a drive thru penalty for the driving infringement that was the cause.
The first car to pit in this race was Mark Winterbottom on lap 3. He started 24th on the grid and was probably just wanted to get out of the traffic.
Brodie Kostecki did the fastest lap of the race 152.106 seconds on lap 5.
Chaz Mostert was behind Thomas Randle and 2.8 seconds off the lead.
Nick Percat, Bryce Fullwood and Macauley Jones all pitted on the same lap.
In the middle of the race Shane Van Gisbergen was still in 4th place but running was 36 seconds off Brodie Kostecki’s lead.
While still commanding the number 1 spot, Brodie Kostecki was the first of the front runners to pit with 8 cars still yet to take their stops. 6 of these were the top 6 cars so when they did pit it would allow Brodie Kostecki to resume his lead.
Towards the end of the race no one else was able to chase down the leaders.
Brodie Kostecki was still in 1st place followed by Thomas Randle, Chaz Mostert, David Reynolds and Shane Van Gisbergen.
The series leader Brodie Kostecki seemed untouchable. He crossed the line 1.0866 seconds clear of Thomas Randle. Chaz Mostert was 1.06342 seconds further back in 3rd place.
For Brodie Kostecki it was his 2nd win for the weekend. Also Thomas Randle had his second podium finish. A great result for both of them.
Results for Race 21
1st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
2nd Thomas Randle – Castrol Racing
3rd Chaz Mostert – Walkinshaw Andretti United
In Race 22 Brodie Kostecki started on pole position with Cameron Waters alongside him.
As they took off Brodie Kostecki got the jump and led into turn 1. Nick Percat made a blinder of a start and was in 2nd place by turn 1.
After passing Nick Percat, Cameron Waters got up inside of Thomas Randle at turn 6 and managed to make the move stick.
Cameron Waters was now in second place hunting down the race leader Brodie Kostecki who only had a 0.574 second lead.
The cars behind were battling for pit priority.
Just behind those front runners Shane Van Gisbergen was trying to get up the inside of Will Davison but couldn’t make the move stick.
That was when Will Davison did the fastest lap of the race, 152.502 seconds.
Within a few laps Brodie Kostecki had a 1.3 second lead over Cameron Waters. I was amazed at the pace that he had.
The first car to pit was Bryce Fullwood on lap 5. He came in way too quick and hit the dirt by the pit lane entry. He recovered quite easily but after review by race control it was deemed a driving infringement and he was issued a 15 second time penalty.
It wasn’t long before the drivers back in the pack also pitted to get out of the traffic.
Todd Hazelwood got up the inside of David Reynolds between turns 2 and 3.
On lap 9 Nick Percat was the first of the front runners to take his mandatory pit stop.
Thomas Randle also pitted from 5th place. When he come back out he was in 12th.
There were 11 cars still yet to pit.
On the next lap Shane Van Gisbergen took his pit stop. On departure the right rear wheel gun was still in place. A very dangerous mistake to make and as a result of this 888 were docked 30 teams championship points post-race.
There were only 2 cars remaining to pit, Brodie Kostecki and Mark Winterbottom.
Chaz Mostert hit the unlucky lap number 13 making contact with another driver and received a bad sportsmanship flag.
The front runners kept their position but Brodie Kostecki had to defend the number 1 spot from Cameron Waters constant threat. The others were a little further back so it was really between those 2 drivers.
On the last lap Broc Feeney who had managed to stay in the top 10 was helped off the track by David Reynolds. It was so unfortunate for the young driver as he dropped down to 24th place.
Brodie Kostecki managed to hold off Cameron Waters all the way to the checkered flag. He crossed the line with only a 0.946 second margin. It was another 6+ seconds before Thomas Randle crossed the line in 3rd place.
Brodie Kostecki must have felt it was a magic weekend getting 3 of 3 wins. Thomas Randle was another driver that must have been pretty happy earning a 3rd, 2nd and then another 3rd place.
Results for Race 22
1st Brodie Kostecki – Erebus Motorsport
2nd Cameron Waters – Monster Energy Racing
3rd Thomas Randle – Castrol Racing
Brodie Kostecki still leads the drivers championship by 137 over Shane Van Gisbergen in 2nd place Broc Feeney is still in 3rd place he is only 228 points off the lead of the championship.
Will Brown is in 4th 258 points behind the series leader Brodie Kostecki.
Chaz Mostert is 5th 313 points off the series lead.
The next event is the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 on the 15 – 17 of September 2023.
There are 4 events remaining 1200 points still up for grabs.
Sandown and Bathurst are 300 points each for the winners.