How Kostecki's American journey shaped his racing
Brodie Kostecki has attributed his robust racing style to his teenage years spent competing in America.
Kostecki has already accrued a wide range of motorsport experience at age 23, from racing karts at home in Perth to NASCAR machinery in Tennessee.
The Erebus Motorsport driver is seven rounds into his maiden full-time Repco Supercars Championship campaign, and leaves little on the table behind the wheel.
Kostecki knew he wanted to pursue motorsport from an early age, and won his first state karting title at 10 years of age.
He was named as one of the top 50 karters in Australia - but not wanting to pursue a career in open wheel racing, Kostecki shifted Stateside.
In 2011, Kostecki made the move to America to compete in the USAC Ford Focus Series. There, he won three national championships and 27 feature races.
"It was a very exciting time of my life, I was also very young, going over at the age of 12," Kostecki said in the Life before Supercars series.
"It was quite an experience for me to move schools, they speak English over there obviously, but the lingo is quite different, and the culture is quite different to Australia as well.
"It was quite a big adjustment, but I had a lot of fun racing over there.
"The population over there is so big, and the racing scene over there matches the population, so I got to race pretty much every week of the year at one point.
"I learned so much in the space of the four years that I was over there, so I’m very thankful to have the opportunity in my life to be able to go and do that."
Kostecki progressed quickly, and in 2012 stepped up to the stock car ranks and recorded a top 10 finish on debut.
In 2013, Kostecki began racing in the ‘late models’ NASCAR development category, where he said he developed his no-holds-barred style of racing.
"I think it was just the mentality over there," he explained.
"Supercars is a 24-25 car grid, give or take a few.
"NASCAR is pretty much the same sort of deal; you might be on a 40-car grid, but the population is so much larger than Australia's, yet the grid size is relatively the same.
"There are so many people going for seats over there and I think it just brings the intensity up a bit.
"People race for a living over there and not just in the top tier, but some of the lower divisions. They race for prize money and that's how they put food on the table for that week.
"So you can imagine, when you're coming from another country and you're trying to make a name for yourself and win races, it sort of wasn't taken nicely at the time.
"I had to learn to be aggressive and I grew up really fast at 13 to 14 years old.
"I had to become a man, so to speak, and I got into a few fights after races, so I think yeah, that's definitely where the aggression comes from."
In his late teens, Kostecki took the next step in his career, competing in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series.
From 14 starts, he claimed two poles, one track record, and one top five finish.
Competing against top teams and names like Cole Custer, Kostecki cut his teeth at tracks such as Bristol, Dover, and Iowa.
"We did everything ourselves,” Kostecki said.
"That was quite a battle in itself; I had my first K&N race in 2013, and was running seventh at the time, when we had a tyre failure about a quarter away from the end.
"That was pretty cool to see that we as a family could go out and compete with some of the top tier teams like Joe Gibbs, and I think Richard Childress was racing at the time.
"Cole Custer was racing, which was pretty cool to see.
"It was definitely pretty challenging at the time, it’s very similar to what Super2 is today.
"Being able to go do that and race at such a high level at such a young age, as a 14-15-16-year-old, I think is something that has primed me for where I am today."
Family circumstances saw Kostecki unexpectedly return to Australia in 2017, but he continued with his racing aspirations, joining the Dunlop Super2 Series with Matt Stone Racing.
By 2018, Kostecki had established himself as a hot talent, taking a trio of Super2 wins that season for the family-run Kostecki Brothers Racing.
Kostecki's maiden podium at Sandown in March
In 2019, he and future teammate Will Brown caught the eye of Erebus with some inspired performances at Sandown.
The Gold-Coast-based driver joined Eggleston Motorsport for 2020 and won two races in Adelaide.
Erebus signed him up for Bathurst 1000 alongside Anton De Pasquale, and he famously raced Jamie Whincup into crashing.
The 2021 season has already seen Kostecki score a maiden podium at a rain-soaked Sandown in March.
However, when asked if he has unfinished business in America, Kostecki said: "I think I do.
"I'd definitely like to go do some races over there, but I love Supercars and the competition here is just absolutely insane.
"This is definitely my home, and I just can't wait to go racing again."
The 2021 season will resume at Sydney Motorsport Park on October 29.
