Analysis: Kostecki and Feeney's breathless final Bathurst stint

"I'm absolutely knackered."

The post-race words from an exhausted Broc Feeney summed up what was a captivating end to a record-breaking Repco Bathurst 1000, which featured just one Safety Car.

The fastest ever Great Race, won by Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood, was ultimately a two-horse race, with Feeney and Jamie Whincup shadowing the Chiko Chevrolet home.

The two combinations put in Oscar-worthy performances; Kostecki/Hazelwood led a staggering 157 of 161 laps on Sunday, with Feeney/Whincup effective second for 149 laps.

So, it was only fitting that it came down to a Kostecki/Feeney showdown to end the race following Matt Payne's crash, creating a 27-lap sprint to the end.

In a remarkable display of athleticism, Kostecki and Feeney drove away from the field, and fired in 27 consecutive effective qualifying laps, each trying to break the other.

It didn't happen, Kostecki pressing on to the point of being fuel-poor, with Feeney hanging on for dear life and, at times, out-pacing the reigning champion.

While the race itself wasn't an instant classic, the overall battle between Kostecki and Feeney was one for the racing purists, with Whincup telling Supercars.com's Schick Cool Down Lap podcast: “Massive respect for Broc and Brodie. They were just absolutely wringing its neck for the last 60 laps.

“The best team won. You know, I've left this place just gutted because we were the quickest car and we didn't quite get it right, and made mistakes. But that wasn't the case today.

"We performed well, we put our best foot forward and then there were a couple of guys — one guy's had a tough year, one guy's had a tough career really — they've ground it out hard and it's a good story.

“They won the Great Race and good on them. But for us, bittersweet, we obviously come here to win the race, but we've come second and third, so, happy days.”

The run home

Often, people play down the athletic achievements of racing drivers. Kostecki and Feeney laid down fastest lap after fastest lap for approximately an hour, leaving their rivals for dead. Kostecki beat Feeney by just 1.3496s. Will Brown, who finished third, dropped to 13.6404s by race's end.

Kostecki dominated, but contrary to many opinions as green flag running went on, there was no fait accompli. Feeney closed in before the Safety Car, and even ranged behind him down Mountain Straight after the restart.

Critically, Kostecki put 0.2159s on Feeney on the first green flag lap, and added 0.4738s to the margin over the next three laps. Kostecki created a buffer, but in response, Feeney went faster on four of the next five laps. On lap 142, they both set their fastest laps of the race, with Feeney quicker by just 0.0153s.

Then, Kostecki went bang-bang, putting nearly 0.5s on Feeney across laps 144 and 145. Kostecki was quicker than Feeney on 11 of the final 17 laps, but Kostecki had pulled enough of a gap to have the slightest piece of breathing space.

All told, in the final 27 laps, there was just 1.1066s deviation between two two drivers. Kostecki 's average lap time was a 2:08.5525s, and Feeney's a 2:08.5934s. In the critical moments, as he did in Saturday's Shootout, Kostecki found time when Feeney didn't.

The aftermath

The only heart-stopping moment was catching traffic on the final lap. Bryce Fullwood got out of the way down into The Esses, but James Courtney made them wait until The Chase.

Surely, there would be no tear-up, and there wasn't. But this was Bathurst. Even after five hours and 58 minutes, you couldn't say never.

Ultimately, the fastest car won the race. Kostecki was the fastest primary driver, and Hazelwood the fastest co-driver. They are the straight facts.

But in his near 22 years, Feeney also proved to many that he truly is the real deal as well. Kostecki came into the weekend a reigning Supercars champion, and proved as much with his crucial pole and dominant performance.

Regardless, it takes two to tango, and Feeney gave everyone a race, something he was proud of, despite being beaten.

"I certainly drove my heart out, out there. I'm absolutely knackered," Feeney said.

"I haven’t driven so hard and as Brodie said, so fast for so many laps. We didn't make any mistakes today. We tried our hardest, and we've come up a bit short.

"But it was so much fun racing these guys, the level that they're at, and the level we had to drive at for the last 500 kilometres was insane."

Kostecki vs Feeney: Lap 135 to lap 161