Kostecki sheds light on illness ordeal

Brodie Kostecki has shed light on the illness that kept him from racing in the betr Darwin Triple Crown finale.

The Shell V-Power Racing Team star was sidelined from Race 19 following a battle with a virus, having battled to a podium the day before.

Kostecki was replaced for the finale by enduro co-driver Todd Hazelwood, who combined with engineer George Commins to deliver an impressive 12th the last race of the weekend.

2023 Supercars champion was one of two drivers sidelined for the final race, with Tickford Racing’s Thomas Randle ruled out after a cool suit failure on Saturday.

After making a brief update on the Sunday, a recovering Kostecki took to his Lucky Dogs podcast to shed light on his struggles.

“It was a pretty tough lead-in for me. I was pretty unwell, and it sort of just snowballed quite a bit,” he explained.

"I thought I was actually getting better before I flew out on the Tuesday, but the Tuesday flight really knocked me for six. I just had like a normal cold or flu leading into it, but it seemed to turn into something more sinister as I got into the weekend, and yeah, it was pretty rough.”

Kostecki made a visit to the on-track medical centre after his brave run to third in Race 18, and felt better after treatment. However, come Sunday morning, he was unable to compete.

“I was really low on energy, lots of aches and pains. My general body was in pain,” he said.

“Still felt pretty sharp upstairs, in my mind… I was trying to conserve as much energy as I could leading into the race weekend.

"It's pretty amazing what you can do when you're running on adrenaline. Basically I went into ‘race Brodie' mode, which was get in the car, do practice, got into quali, qualified on pole [on Friday].

"I really struggled Saturday morning. Went and saw De Carl [Le, Supercars Medical Delegate], got cleared to drive. Drove on the Saturday and unfortunately didn't have a drink bottle in the car on the Saturday.

“My body just completely shut down as soon as the race was over… it was quite a shock.”

Kostecki rejoined his team after being checked over at the on-site medical on Saturday afternoon, having dinner and completing debrief. Ultimately, come Sunday morning, it was a step too far, and he later went to hospital for precautionary scans amid back pain.

“I was fine to drive the next day. But, went back to the hotel and hopped into bed and woke up the next morning, my body just completely shut down. It was a task to walk, to be honest," he said.

"I got myself to the racetrack and thought it might be some physio stuff. But I was generally just so weak… it was turning into something that was quite bacterial and could have led to something worse.

Kostecki was grateful for the messages of support, and also apologised to fans he was unable to meet across the weekend.

“Just want to thank everyone for reaching out, the messages across the weekend. Not only from fans, supporters, also the other drivers as well, it was quite overwhelming," he said.

“To be honest, I never thought I was ever gonna have a weekend like that in my career.”

Kostecki is 203 points behind leader Broc Feeney heading to the NTI Townsville 500 on July 10-12.