Kostecki not panicking despite being sidelined by gremlins
Brodie Kostecki not panicking despite being sidelined by gremlins
#38 DJR Mustang only 26th in final practice amid steering issues
Kostecki was third on Practice 1, Todd Hazelwood second in Practice 2
Brodie Kostecki is more concerned about hunting down Will Brown than the issues that cost the #38 Shell V-Power Ford at The Bend on Friday.
The Kostecki/Todd Hazelwood Mustang was third and second in the first two sessions on Friday before it spent the balance of the session in the garage.
The #38 was sidelined with a suspected steering issue, with Dick Johnson Racing currently changing the steering rack in the car.
It was a sour footnote on a day the Bathurst-winning Kostecki/Hazelwood pairing emerged as one to beat, with reigning champion Brown going fastest of all.
Speaking on the broadcast, Kostecki explained that Hazelwood — who is on double duty with Trans Am — managed an issue en route to second in Practice 2 before Kostecki identified an issue.
“We're pulling all the steering stuff out now and something's let go. It was quite hard to drive,” Kostecki said.
"Todd was doing a great job in his co-driver session, but was a little bit inconsistent with his two laps on the green run.
“He looked a little bit perplexed and said he didn't do a good job, but as soon as I drove out and it wasn’t too good, and it was too unsafe to continue. The car feels okay, feels pretty balanced, so we'll just have to see what tomorrow brings and just get it sorted out and we should be okay.”
The #38 wasn’t the only car to hit trouble, with the #20 of David Reynolds/Lee Holdsworth also picking up a suspected electrical issue. The Kostecki and Reynolds cars only turned five laps each in the session, with 17 of the 27-car field logging 10 or more laps.
When asked about Brown’s pace, Kostecki replied: "This track has always been really knife edge… didn’t really get to experience that then on a set of greens obviously.
“Hopefully we can get this Shell V-Power Mustang back dialled in for tomorrow and try achieve the time they did today. It's pretty fast, so I got a long way to go to catch them."
Co-drivers will kick off Saturday's action with Practice 4 at 9:50am local/10:20am AEST, followed by Practice 5 at 12:00pm local/12:30pm AEST. All drivers will take to the track for Boost Mobile Qualifying at 3:05pm local/3:35pm AEST, which will set the running order for the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout at 4:50pm local/5:20pm AEST.
