Kostecki tops dramatic qualifying

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: 13 April 2025

Brodie Kostecki needed just one lap to take provisional pole in Race 10 Qualifying where not one of the top three in the Supercars Championship made the Shootout.

Having taken a maiden DJR pole on Saturday, Kostecki continued his one-lap pace by topping the two-part the session with a 1:25.6303.

He only enjoyed a 0.0122s buffer over Cameron Hill, while Anton De Pasquale, Ryan Wood, Andre Heimgartner, Matt Payne, Thomas Randle, Kai Allen, Chaz Mostert and James Golding also secured tickets to the one-lap dash.

However, there were some massively notable absentees from that list.

Triple Eight’s struggles continued with the decision to stay in the garage at the end of Q1 proving extremely costly for Broc Feeney, who will start down in 20^th.

Will Brown made it to Q2, but did not go any further and managed 12^th.

Another big victim was Cameron Waters as a lock up and off at Turn 11 restricted the Tickford star to 18^th on the grid.

To avoid being dropped, the pace was on at the very start of Q1 where many pushed hard early.

But in another league was Golding, being more than two tenths clear of the field with a 1:26.3311.

Triple Eight was the only team to immediately use fresh tyres and this allowed Feeney to do an extra lap and improve to second.

Team 18 showed speed with De Pasquale and Reynolds both in the top five, while Payne also translated his pace to be fourth.

The likes of Cameron Hill and Aaron Cameron impressed to be in the top seven.

There were some big names who found themselves in the drop zone inside the final minutes.

The likes of Allen, Murray, Courtney, Wood, Mostert and Randle all needed to improve, while Waters was also in the danger zone being 18^th and on the bubble.

Mostert responded perfectly to bolt to the top of the timesheets before immediately being knocked off by Heimgartner.

By the end of the session Heimgartner was sixth as De Pasquale, Payne, Golding, Wood and Kostecki all nailed late laps.

But the big news was what was going on in the Triple Eight garage.

After recording two laps in the opening run, the #88 crew elected to keep Feeney inside the garage for the final minutes and it proved extremely costly.

Feeney could do nothing, but watch on as he tumbled down the leaderboard from second to 20^th with improvements from Davison and Jones ensured the Triple Eight star was knocked out.

Teammate Brown was extremely lucky to make the cut, surviving by 0.0042s ahead of Reynolds, who was the first in the drop zone in 19^th.

The aim of the game was not to get into the top 10 and the Kiwis set the early pace as the times dipped into the 1m25s window,

To the thrill of the home crowd, young local chargers Wood and Payne filled the top two spots with only 0.0614s between them.

Both of them were so happy with their speed they stayed in the garage for the end and it paid off.

Another strong performance from a local was Evans, who set 10^th to keep Brown in the drop zone, but unfortunately the BJR driver could do enough to make the Shootout.

Kostecki and Golding did not record a lap early on, but they performed under pressure.

The DJR put the foot down in his one and only lap, recording a purple final sector to shoot from last to first.

Hill came within 0.0122s while De Pasquale also jumped ahead of Wood.

Golding’s lap was just enough to scrape into the Shootout, denying Le Brocq by 0.06s.

Critically Brown could not do enough and only managed 12^th ahead of Davison.

All eyes then turned to Waters, who needed a lap sitting last and threw it away.

A lock up approaching the tricky Turn 11 proved costly as the Monster Mustang went off.

There was no turning back with Waters stuck with 18^th on the grid.

Wood and Payne only dropped back to fourth and sixth respectively as they watched on from the garage.

Heimgartner, Allen and Mostert also did enough to secure tickets to the Top 10 Shootout which decides pole at 10.50 AEST.

Qualifying Race 10

Pos Driver Time

1 Brodie Kostecki 1:25.6303

2 Cameron Hill +0.0122

3 Anton De Pasquale +0.1009

4 Ryan Wood +0.1433

5 Andre Heimgartner +0.1722

6 Matt Payne +0.2047

7 Thomas Randle +0.2632

8 Kai Allen +0.2735

9 Chaz Mostert +0.2812

10 James Golding +0.2846

11 Jack Le Brocq +0.3418

12 Will Brown +0.3844

13 Will Davison +0.5679

14 Jaxon Evans +0.6077

15 Cooper Murray +0.7734

16 Macauley Jones +0.7841

17 Richie Stanaway +0.8028

18 Cameron Waters +0.8916

19 David Reynolds +0.9165

20 Broc Feeney +0.9205

21 Bryce Fullwood +0.9515

22 Nick Percat +1.0348

23 James Courtney +1.2124

24 Aaron Cameron +1.3226

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

Sun 8.35-9.05: Supercars Race 10 Qualifying

Sun 10.50-11.35: Supercars Race 10 Top 10 Shootout

Sun 13.05: Supercars Race 10 (61 laps)

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Kostecki tops dramatic qualifying

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