Brodie Kostecki spooked by unseen last lap moment
Kostecki won Bathurst 1000 after Anton De Pasquale ran out of fuel
Last lap emotions nearly caused Kostecki to crash out
Brodie Kostecki has revealed that instant emotions, triggered by the wild last lap climax, nearly caused him to crash out of the Repco Bathurst 1000.
The Shell V-Power Racing Team driver passed Anton De Pasquale on the final lap of Sunday’s Great Race, after the latter ran out of fuel.
Kostecki — who fought back after an earlier brake stop disaster — rounded up De Pasquale on Mountain Straight, and as he rounded Griffins Bend, immediately welled up inside his crash helmet.
In the face of the setting Bathurst sun, Kostecki revealed he almost threw it away, before sealing what he labelled the "best race win, victory, career moment, I’ve ever had.”
The live broadcast cut to scenes in pit lane for DJR and Matt Stone Racing as Kostecki rounded The Cutting, before picking the #17 Ford back up as he approached Reid Park.
“As soon as I got by him, I almost crashed into The Cutting, because I had this euphoria of emotions over me,” Kostecki said on his Lucky Dogs podcast.
“We were leading the race by 20 seconds. Then we have the [slow] pit stop.
“I went into this mode of... ‘I’m gonna write this thing off or I’m gonna catch these cars in front’. And then I’ve gone from that to then leading on the last lap of Bathurst.
“I didn’t even know it was the last lap, I think [engineer] Tom [Moore] forgot to tell me. So I’m looking at my dash and it says 161. I’m like, ‘Is this right?’
"I was like trying not to cry on the last lap and then obviously brought it home from there. It was just a crazy, crazy finish. You couldn’t have scripted that.”
As for the moment itself, Kostecki said he was informed the #18 DEWALT Chevrolet “could run out,” something he refused to believe until it actually happened.
"I was like, ’Nah, it’s too good to be true’. And he runs out down Mountain Straight,” Kostecki said.
"I thought maybe they told him maximum fuel save and I thought he was just gonna go slow and block. Can you imagine how crazy that would have been? That’s what I thought in my head.
"I’m like, ‘Oh my God, he’s actually gonna block the whole way going up through the hill, this is gonna be a shit show’. I was like, ‘Oh no’.
"But he was legitimately out.”
Kostecki is seeded fourth for the 2026 Finals opener on the Gold Coast, on October 23-25.
