Paddock Notebook: Kostecki returns, Whincup in UK
Just 18 days after Anton De Pasquale took the chequered flag in Darwin, Supercars burst back into life on Thursday.
The Reid Park paddock was busy as teams set up their garages, cleaned down cars, and unveiled new liveries. All cars then went into the city for the Track to Town event, where drivers caught up with fans. From Friday, though, the talking stops, and there are plenty of stories to cover.
Catch below the key stories for each team heading to this weekend's NTI Townsville 500, listed in pit lane order. Track action commences at 10:35am local time on Friday.
Penrite Racing
The new teams’ championship leaders kept up their trend of making headlines, announcing Thursday that they’ve signed ex-Porsche engineer Alexander Lieschke. The German takes the newly created role of Head of Simulation & Performance Engineering. Matt Payne had a laidback pre-track walk chat with Supercars.com, showing just how relaxed he is — perhaps another sign that the orange numbers could find a new home this weekend. Supercars champions Mark Winterbottom and James Courtney have both tipped change at the top.
Red Bull Ampol Racing
The erstwhile teams’ championship leaders are without Team Principal Jamie Whincup, who is in the UK ahead of an historic Goodwood Festival of Speed appearance in a Gen3 Mustang. Overnight, Whincup took to the Dunsfold Aerodrome, the home of the Top Gear test track. Whincup also missed the New Zealand Supercars doubleheader in favour of business in China. Looking to on-track matters, Triple Eight has been open about a reported straight-line deficit to other Ford teams across the opening rounds, which came to the fore in Darwin. There’s still a quiet confidence down in the Red Bull Ampol garage, despite being on the receiving end of a power shift in pit lane.
Tickford Racing
Cam Waters has been back in the media after a big weekend in Darwin, while Thomas Randle has also fronted up, answering any and every question about his ordeal in Darwin. Sitting 230 points behind 10th, it’s now or never for Randle to make a dent before the enduros. Tickford is running three Fords in Townsville, with Reuben Goodall steering a wildcard Mustang. The Goodall car was unveiled on Thursday.
Walkinshaw TWG Racing
The story of the week was confirmation that Team Principal Carl Faux will depart after Bathurst. The news coincides with Toyota’s ongoing engine reliability work, which is also understood to be sorted by Bathurst. With five rounds before the cut-off, every point matters for both Ryan Wood and Chaz Mostert, who has been tipped by Supercars.com and Courtney to drop out of the top 10 this weekend. And, courtesy of their deal with Ringers Western, you won’t miss Mostert or Wood, who will be sporting big cowboy hats this weekend.
Team 18
Anton De Pasquale marks his first weekend after victory in Darwin with a brand new look, courtesy of Cub Cadet. Watch out for the #18 Camaro this weekend. De Pasquale was branded by Garth Tander as a Grand Prix circuit specialist, but catch this — De Pasquale has the third best Gen3 race average in the field in Townsville. He’s only 66 points from the top three…
Shell V-Power Racing Team
The man of Thursday of Brodie Kostecki, who less than three weeks ago, sat slumped in a heap on his Shell V-Power Ford. He fronted up to the media at Reid Park and gave energy to each question, and didn’t shy away from his Darwin woes. And, you won’t miss the team’s Minions-inspired yellow Fords on track!
Brad Jones Racing
A quiet Darwin has kept BJR quiet heading into Townsville, where Andre Heimgartner needs to score well to keep his Finals hopes alive. Heimgartner claimed a podium here in 2023, so a repeat performance would do him plenty of good. But, they’re under the same reliability cloud as Walkinshaw TWG, and you do need mechanical sympathy to survive in Townsville. The team needs to extract the absolute most, otherwise Finals dreams will be out of their hands.
Blanchard Racing Team
James Golding — who hits 200 races on Sunday — is still in a provisional Finals position, but he can’t afford to drop points in either of the 200km races, let alone all three. When asked by Supercars.com about Finals games, Golding was blunt: “Well, I mean, it is in the rules that you can't force or affect the result. So we wouldn't be doing that, otherwise we'd be disqualified.”
Matt Stone Racing
Jack Le Brocq is hanging onto hope of a Finals berth, and he’ll hoping his team doesn’t feel the pinch of expanding for Townsville. MSR is running three cars for the first time since Bathurst last year, when it operated a Cameron Crick/Aaron Seton enduro wildcard. The crook Crick has stepped aside for Seton, who makes his solo debut in Supercars. And how about that livery…
PremiAir Racing
The continued rise of Jayden Ojeda has exposed Declan Fraser, who was in Team Principal Roland Dane’s crosshairs after Darwin. Fraser won his very first Super2 race here back in 2022, the year he won the title. The team hasn’t taken up an option on the Queenslander, while Ojeda will return in 2027.
Erebus Motorsport
Diving into the General Motors data sharing alliance in Darwin could be seen by some as Erebus swallowing some pride. Regardless, things need to start happening soon — the team is on a 54-race streak without a podium. The team’s longest streak without silverware was a run of 55 races across the 2015 and 2016 seasons, when they swapped AMGs for Commodores.
Objective Racing
Jackson Walls is one of two drivers, alongside fellow rookie Jobe Stewart, who has failed to register a top 10 finish so far this season. He raced to fifth and eighth in Super2 here last year, and won a Carrera Cup race in 2022, so he knows his way around the place. Team Principal Wes McDougall was in Thursday’s press conference, saying: “It’s super hard learning the Gen3 car, having done five rounds in Super2 last year… you’re 1% away, but you’re 18th to 24th type of thing.”
