The 293-day curse hanging over points leaders

When Brodie Kostecki rolls out for Race 20 at the OTR SuperSprint, he will be armed to snap a curse that goes back almost 293 days.

Kostecki is one of four drivers — along with Erebus Motorsport teammate Will Brown, Cam Waters and Chaz Mostert — to have led the points this season.

However, every time a driver has led the championship, they haven’t taken the orange numbers to victory lane.

The orange numbers are on a 21-race winless streak, with Shane van Gisbergen the last championship leader to win a race.

Van Gisbergen’s Race 30 victory at last year’s Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 was the most recent win by a points leader.

Champion-elect van Gisbergen went winless at the season finale in Adelaide, with Mostert and Broc Feeney doing the winning.

October 30, 2022: The last time a points leader won

In 2023, the points leader has so far failed to take the orange numbers to the chequered flag first.

In 19 races this season, the championship lead has changed four times, from Waters to Mostert, to Kostecki, to Brown and back to Kostecki.

Remarkably, neither Triple Eight driver has led the points this season — although van Gisbergen almost had that honour at the first chance of asking.

Van Gisbergen won the first race of the Gen3 era at the Thrifty Newcastle 500, only to be disqualified over a technical breach.

Waters was awarded victory and hence took hold of the orange numbers, but ceded them immediately to Mostert after he finished 12th in Race 2.

Mostert led to the Beaurepaires Melbourne SuperSprint finale before handing them to Kostecki, who led until Race 16 in Townsville.

Brown took over in Townsville, but handed the ascendancy back to Kostecki in Sydney — only for van Gisbergen to win the Sydney finale.

Between Races 6 and 16, Kostecki scored six podiums, but was unable to carry his orange #99 to victory lane.

Kostecki has led the points for 12 races in total, Mostert for four races, Brown two races and Waters one.

Heading to The Bend Motorsport Park, the top four — Kostecki, Brown, van Gisbergen and Feeney — are covered by just 67 points.

Tickets for the OTR SuperSprint — on August 18-20 — are on sale now. Supercars will hit the track for sprint races on Saturday (Race 20) and Sunday (Race 21 and Race 22).

The plight of the 2023 championship leader