How Kostecki could join legends in 2024
Brodie Kostecki’s won the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship, but victory in 2024 would put the young driver in elite company.
Last year, Kostecki's maiden title helped the Erebus Motorsport driver become the 26th driver to win the Australian Touring Car/Supercars Championship, since its first running in 1960.
If he repeats the dose come November at the VAILO Adelaide 500, he would become the 15th in history to score multiple ATCC/Supercars titles, and the 12th to go back-to-back.
If he can back up his maiden title with a second the very next year, he would join an even more exclusive list.
Bob Jane: 1962, 1963
The late driver turned tyre mogul won the 1962 and 1963 titles in the era when the championship was decided over a single race each year. After debuting at Lowood in 1961, Jane won the Longford-hosted 1962 race, with Jane and his Jaguar the class of the field a year later at Mallala.
Dick Johnson: 1981, 1982
The first two of Dick Johnson’s five titles were taken consecutively, with the Queenslander winning in 1981 and 1982. Johnson bounced back from his infamous incident with a rock at Bathurst in 1980 to go back-to-back, first sealing the 1981 crown at a decider at his home circuit, Lakeside, before winning in 1982 after Peter Brock was disqualified from a number of races over the use of not yet homologated engine heads. He would add titles in 1984, 1988 and 1989.
Marcos Ambrose: 2003, 2004
Two decades after Johnson’s double delight, another Ford hero in Marcos Ambrose converted one title to two in 2004. Ambrose ended a long spell of dominance by the Holden Racing Team to steer Stone Brothers Racing to glory in 2003, before he led an SBR one-two in 2004.
Jamie Whincup: 2008, 2009
Jamie Whincup’s road to Supercars ‘GOAT’ status began when he joined the team in 2006, famously winning Adelaide and Bathurst. Come 2008, and Whincup recovered from a Hamilton disaster — not starting a race after crashing in qualifying — to crush the field in the second half of the year. A switch from the BF to FG model Falcon, and the loss of Ford support, couldn’t slow Whincup and Triple Eight in 2009. He missed out in 2010 after a battle with James Courtney, before reeling off four straight between 2011 and 2014, before adding a seventh in thrilling fashion in 2017.
Scott McLaughlin: 2018, 2019, 2020
Scott McLaughlin had an epic run of form between 2017 and 2020 with DJR Team Penske, and is the only driver to make his maiden title part of a three-peat. After a heartbreaking loss in 2017, McLaughlin outlasted countryman Shane van Gisbergen in 2018, and was unbeatable in 2019 and 2020 when the Mustang arrived.
