Kostecki 'a bit lost' with steering gremlins
Brodie Kostecki felt a “bit lost” amid steering gremlins
Kostecki eighth despite steering woes on Friday
Teammate Jack Le Brocq second in Townsville practice
Despite ending Friday eighth on the time sheets, Brodie Kostecki felt a “bit lost” as steering gremlins reared their head on Friday in Townsville.
The reigning champion was eighth in Practice 2 at the Reid Park Street Circuit, with Tickford Racing driver Cam Waters completing a practice double.
Kostecki’s Erebus Motorsport teammate Jack Le Brocq led the majority of the session, and ended up second following Waters’ last-gasp flyer. The #1 Erebus Camaro dropped from fifth to eighth in the final minutes, with Kostecki returning to the garage.
Speaking after the session, Kostecki explained his steering had felt “a bit funny” all day, with the team set to put a new rack in ahead of Saturday’s action.
It came after Kostecki was forced out of the Perth finale with an engine issue, before he was a non-starter for the Darwin opener amid further engine dramas, forcing an overnight engine change.
"I'm a bit lost at the moment, the steering's been feeling a bit funny all weekend,” said Kostecki, who bounced back on the Darwin Sunday with a podium.
“The boys changed a whole bunch of stuff and we still didn't quite get on top of it. We’ll put a new rack in it for qualifying and it should be fine.
"The car actually feels really good, I'm just lost in the steering wheel, it feels like it's disconnected from the front wheels a little bit.”
Kostecki’s issues came after Matt Stone Racing driver Cameron Hill lost the majority of Practice 1 due to a suspected steering rack issue.
It was a happier story for Kostecki’s teammate Le Brocq, who after setting the early pace, worked on his car for the remainder of the afternoon session.
"Yeah it was a good run, the guys were going through everything but we had a pretty solid car there,” Le Brocq said.
"We were trying a few weird and wacky things at the end of the session there, and it was good, we learned a lot and we're pretty confident going into tomorrow.
"It's always nice to be fast on Friday but you've got to back it up on Saturday and Sunday, so we'll dig through it all and go again.
“We changed a lot of stuff from P1, but we also didn't run a set of green tyres as well, so we had two sets to play with then which is always nice.
"It's weird [the track] just changes so much especially on a Friday, the rubber comes in and it's changing session on session.
"It's a cool place, I love it here, it's an old school street circuit where the old surface tears the tyres up and it's a lot of fun."
Saturday Supercars action will commence at 10:15am AEST. with Boost Mobile Qualifying, followed by the Top Ten Shootout at 12:05pm.
The first 88-lap race of the weekend, Race 13, will start at 2:40pm.
