Kostecki asserts fitness after Darwin scare

Brodie Kostecki has declared that he is ready to fire at the NTI Townsville 500, having fully recovered from the virus that hampered his Darwin weekend.

Three weeks ago Kostecki soldiered in trademark fashion through the opening two days of the Triple Crown, recording a Friday pole and Saturday podium, clawing back big ground on championship leader Broc Feeney in the process.

However, a malfunctioning in-car drink system for the second race took its toll on the 2024 Bathurst champion, who had to be helped from the car.

Kostecki ultimately elected to sit out the final day's running, with enduro co-driver Todd Hazelwood called up as a super sub and starring.

The 2023 champion fronted the media on Thursday in Townsville, and insists that he will be back on top form as he looks to claim his first win since Christchurch in April.

“I’ve just been doing everything I can to make sure that I'm fit and healthy to obviously get back behind the wheel again and not have a repeat of what happened in Darwin,” Kostecki told media.

"I'm feeling fit and ready and excited to drive the car again tomorrow.

“It’s a pretty intense circuit, but I've got a great team around me that gave me all the tools to do the job. We’ve left no stone unturned. So, we’ll just go about our business and I'm sure we'll be up, up on the pointy end."

After receiving medical treatment immediately following his Saturday podium, Kostecki's physical condition deteriorated to the point of his body shutting down on Sunday morning, leaving DJR to call up Hazelwood from Trans Am.

“No. I’m not really sure where all that sort of stemmed from. I was obviously pretty ill leading into Darwin and I just shut down on Sunday," Kostecki continued.

“Body said that was enough, but I feel great. Once I got over what I had, I was sort of fit and healthy again and just been taking it day by day and make sure that I’m much fit for this weekend.”

DJR Team Manager, Tom Moore, also spoke to the media at Thursday morning's team representatives press conference, and confirmed that Kostecki had been a constant presence in the team's Gold Coast workshop after he recovered.

"On Brodie, yeah he's fine. He was in the workshop plenty of days last week, and first day he was in there he said, 'I feel like I can go and run a 5k tomorrow,' so there's no concerns there over Brodie," Moore told media.

"He took some well-earned recovery, some well-earned rest after the event, and he's raring to go."

Hazelwood is on deck in Townsville, though not at the request of DJR. The 2017 Super2 champion is guest driving in the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia GR Cup, with DJR not expecting his services to be required save for a 'worst-case scenario'.

Moore added: "Todd's here, not because we wanted him, but he is here doing other stuff. [He's] not expected to be needed, no.

"I guess every team always considers worst-case scenario, do we have someone at the track who can jump in if we need them? But it's not something more than that."

Townsville holds special significance for the Kostecki/DJR union, having been the venue where they scored their first win together 12 months ago.

One year later, and Kostecki shapes as a serious title contender once Finals roll around in October, though he knows the intensity at the front of the field is only going to ramp up as the year goes on.

"I mean, it's motor racing. It's never gonna be stress-free,” Kostecki said.

“But we'll just put our best foot forward. I know that I've had a really consistent fast race car the last couple of rounds.

“We’ll just focus on the job at hand and I'm sure that we'll be at the pointy end.”

The NTI Townsville 500 kicks off on Friday with practice, Boost Mobile Qualifying, and the 100km Race 20.