Kostecki unfazed by Gold Coast Shootout error
Supercars
28 Oct
Brodie Kostecki picked up kerb strike and will start 10th in Saturday's race
Title rival Shane van Gisbergen starts third, seven places up the road
Kostecki leads van Gisbergen by 131 points with 600 remaining
Brodie Kostecki has shrugged off his Gold Coast Shootout error, reiterating his year-long speed ahead of Saturday’s crucial 85-lap race.
The Erebus Motorsport driver will start 10th, seven places behind primary title rival Shane van Gisbergen, in the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 opener.
Kostecki set the quickest first sector on his ARMOR ALL Top Ten Shootout lap, but triggered the kerb sensor at Turn 8 in the beach chicane, wiping his lap.
It marked Kostecki’s worst qualifying result since Townsville in July, and should van Gisbergen finish third to Kostecki’s 10th, a 131-point lead would be slashed to 80 points.
It wasn't all doom and gloom for Kostecki, who clinched this year's ARMOR ALL Pole Champion Award after teammate Will Brown qualified 25th. Brown had four poles to Kostecki's seven heading into Saturday, and the latter would win on countback should Triple Eight-bound Brown sweep the remaining three poles.
“I just made a small, little error going over the first right-hand kerb and just bounced a little bit too wide and then just got a kerb hop there,” Kostecki said.
“So, my mistake, but the car’s pretty fast and the track was getting faster and faster through the Shootout.
“Cam [Waters, pole-sitter] did a fantastic job, so congratulations to all of them for getting pole, but we’ll fight back from 10th and see where we end up.”
Kostecki, who has won six races and claimed a season-high 17 podiums, remained confident in the speed of his #99 Coca-Cola Chevrolet.
“We’ll just see how the race goes,” said Kostecki, who has led the championship after 17 of 24 races this season.
“The race hasn’t started yet, so we’ll get through the first few corners and see how we stack up.
“I know the car’s definitely had plenty of pace all year, so we’ll just see how we go and hopefully pick a few off and close the gap down a little bit and see how close we can get to the front.”
The 85-lap Race 25 will commence at 3:45pm local time/4:45pm AEDT.
