Will Brown, Brodie Kostecki trade barbs after dogged fight
Brown and Kostecki got into it for effective third late in Great Race
Rivals turned Lucky Dogs podcast co-hosts finished first and second
Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown have a podcast to record.
It could have been a zinger, or even been cancelled, if they clashed on Sunday.
Kostecki won the battle of the Lucky Dogs in a remarkable ending to the Repco Bathurst 1000, which was won by the #17 Shell V-Power Ford after late drama for Anton De Pasquale.
Earlier, Kostecki caught and passed Brown for effective third, before a late Safety Car brought them back to De Pasquale and Zach Bates.
Try as he might, Brown couldn’t keep his mate behind, with Kostecki on fresher tyres and with the bit between his teeth. Such was Brown’s defence, that he copped a bad sportsmanship flag for moving under brakes.
“It was a good race and I cannot wait for the next eleven months. I'm really gonna enjoy it,” Kostecki grinned in the press conference, looking to Brown.
Brown retorted, to laughs in the media centre: “I should've right hooked him up the hill, hey? What was I thinking?”
Kostecki continued: "It was a great battle. Always loved racing Will, I'm sure he had a big grin on his face when he was trying to door me and push me off the track.
“He's a smart bugger who was trying to run me off and just make me drop one wheel on entry into the last corner. But, ultimately, I had 10 lap fresher tyres and my car was a lot quicker than his.
"I was gonna get by him at some stage. I just wanted to make sure I got by without uprights and stuff hanging off of it. Otherwise it would've been a pretty interesting afternoon when we do the podcast.”
Brown, who won the Ryco Enduro Cup after De Pasquale’s disaster, said: “I was a bit confused. [My engineers] were telling me I was actually pulling away from Brodie by a couple of tenths a lap.
"I didn't realise he was still out there running towards the end of his stint and had to pit. And then when they said, 'Uh, that's Brodie coming out of the pits’, I was like, 'Oh, geez, this isn't gonna be good’.
“He was catching me over like two seconds a lap. I just thought I'd make it as hard as possible... I didn't actually think it was for the win, to be honest. They were saying, 'Anton, we're not sure. We think he is out of fuel, and then Batesy was up the road.
"I wanted to get on the podium, you know. We'd had a hard fight all day and wanted to be on the podium, so I was trying to position the car in the smartest spots I could, and I've never seen a bad sportsmanship play come out so quickly, to be honest.
“We were just banging doors and I was actually enjoying it.”
