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Kostecki blitzes Shootout

Kostecki celebrates pole

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: 13 April 2025

Brodie Kostecki has taken back to back Taupo poles by blitzing the Race 10 Top 10 Shootout.

Kostecki flew on fresh tyres in a fully committed lap to take a 15th pole and second in as many sessions.

He enjoyed a full tenth on the rest and joining him on the front row is the man he replaced at DJR, Anton De Pasquale, who impressed for Team 18, giving its first front row start since Adelaide 2022 in front of the Chevrolet bosses after the homologation team announcement.

The likes of Ryan Wood and Cameron Hill also turned heads to get on the second row and set the scene for an open 200km race this afternoon.

P10 James Golding 1:26.6797 +0.9745

On used tyres Golding produced a steady start to the lap and went shallow finding a slight bit of grass as he approached the Turn 11 hairpin.

Put the foot down along the back straight to be only three tenths short of his qualifying time.

“Not too bad. But hard to get a gage where the track is at being relatively hot,” Golding said.

P9 Chaz Mostert 1:26.2912 +0.5860

Mostert raced out of the blocks, using more kerb on the exit of Turn 4 and had impressive speed on the used tyres, gaining a quarter of a second on Golding in the first sector alone.

Another strong final sector after fully committing to the final chicane saw the WAU driver find a further four tenths on the PremiAir driver’s benchmark.

“I kind of sent it into the chicane with a lot of lock lights everywhere so glad I will not go backwards,” Mostert said.

P7 Kai Allen 1:26.2312 +0.5260

At 19 years young, Allen put the foot down in his very first Shootout appearance in his 13th start.

Had an outstanding start, being 0.045s up on Mostert on the opening split.

Found the grass on approach to Turn 11, but this was smart as he found a further tenth on his WAU rival.

He calmly executed the chicane to impressively beat Mostert, a veteran of 74 shootouts by 0.0600s.

“Pretty cool, first Shootout! Very happy with the car and the team have done an unbelievable job,” Allen said.

P5 Thomas Randle 1:26.1174 +0.4122

Tickford’s only Shootout starter Randle carried the weight of the team and was the first to enjoy the extra grip of new tyres in the session.

His steering wheel was busy negotiating the first sector and he had an even bigger moment coming out of Turn 9.

However, he still had enough pace to set a purple second sector and found more time down the back straight to beat Allen by a tenth.

P6 Matt Payne 1:26.1550 +0.4498

After setting record pace to pole on Saturday, Payne was determined to make another impact on fresh tyres.

Did not need much kerb coming out of Turn 4 and was slightly off Randle at the start.

But the car looked more settled as he went purple in the second split.

Payne appeared to run slightly wider than hoped at the hairpin and it proved decisive as he fell 0.0376s short of Randle.

“Just struggled with the rear a bit and it did not feel too bad. Battling with the car in the track conditions

P8 Andre Heimgartner 1:26.2576 +0.5524

After a quick warm up lap, Heimgartner was straight into it waving the BJR flag in the Shootout with two green tyres on the loaded right hand side.

Had a clean start being a tenth adrift of Randle and he could not close the margin across the remainder of the lap.

Ended up slotting in behind Randle, Payne and Allen.

“It was not too bad and only had green tyres on the right so suffered a bit. Not too unhappy,” the BJR driver said.

P3 Ryan Wood 1:25.8999 +0.1947

Revved up in front of a home crowd Wood started brilliantly, going purple in the tight first sector.

Having quickly prepared for the lap on four green tyres, Wood found more time as the lap went on.

He carried a lot of speed through the chicane and despite finding some grass on the exit, smashed Randle by 0.2175s.

Not only that he was the first to record a 1m25s lap in the dash.

“That is for Carl Faux at home,” Wood simply said.

P2 Anton De Pasquale 1:25.8729 +0.1677

With Chevrolet members in the background, De Pasquale put on a show.

Carried a lot of kerb over Turn 2 but still edged Wood in the first split by 0.007s.

Hugged the inside line more than anyone around the hairpin and the fully committed lap did it, beating the WAU youngster by 0.0270s.

“Car feeling really good and the whole team is doing awesome,” De Pasquale said.

P4 Cameron Hill 1:25.9735 +0.2683

After “using all of our biscuits” to secure second in Qualifying, Hill was stuck on used tyres.

However, this did not stop him from still going purple in the first sector with an air hose waving around.

Hill went purple again in the second sector, but his dreams of pole faded in the final sector where he lost a tenth.

But to secure third at the time on used tyres was still a strong performance.

“I am very happy with that. We picked the best with what we had. I was out of control in (Turn 13)” Hill said.

P1 Brodie Kostecki 1:25.7052

Kostecki tarted his pursuit of back to back poles brilliantly by being the latest to set the fastest time in the twisty opening sector.

The DJR driver danced his way out of Turn 9 to smash the second split by two tenths.

He did not stop pushing until the chequered flag where he fist pumped his way over the line to fly to pole with a rapid time.

Image: Mark Horsburgh

Taupo Super440

Practice 1 – 1: A. Heimgartner 1:26.8830 2: Anton De Pasquale +0.0258 3: Matt Payne +0.0830

Practice 2 – 1: Ryan Wood 1:25.9778; 2: Brodie Kostecki +0.0435; 3: Thomas Randle +0.0838

Race 8 Qualifying – 1 Matt Payne 1:25.7006; 2 Brodie Kostecki +0.0705; 3 Cameron Waters +0.1646

Race 9 Qualifying: 1 Brodie Kostecki 1:26.3482; 2 Chaz Mostert +0.0712; 3 Broc Feeney +0.1939

Race 8 (37 laps) 1 Matt Payne 2 Cameron Waters 3 Ryan Wood

Race 9 (37 laps) 1 Chaz Mostert WAU 37 56.14; 2 Will Davison DJR 37 +6.4763; 3 Brodie Kostecki DJR 37 +9.1911

Race 10 Qualifying 1 Brodie Kostecki 1:25.6303; 2 Cameron Hill +0.0122; 3 Anton De Pasquale +0.1009

Sun 10.50-11.35: Supercars Race 10 Top 10 Shootout

Sun 13.05: Supercars Race 10 (61 laps)

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