The broken Gold Coast record that lasted a single day

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship has been full of dramatic and close finishes, with the closest two coming 24 hours apart.

Cam Waters beat Shane van Gisbergen in a thrilling Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 opener, before David Reynolds pipped Brodie Kostecki a day later.

This year has been one of the closest ever at the chequered flag — of 26 completed races, nine have been officially settled by a margin of less than one second. That’s already up two on 2022 (seven) and five on 2021 (four).

A 13-year-old Gold Coast record was wiped on the Saturday, before it was remarkably bested on Sunday.

Waters beat van Gisbergen by 0.194s in Race 25, which was the closest Gold Coast Supercars finish since Jamie Whincup beat van Gisbergen by 0.205s in 2010.

On Sunday, in another final-lap showdown, Reynolds — who hadn’t won since 2018 — beat Kostecki by 0.189s, thus resetting the Gold Coast record again.

Of nine races decided by less than second, seven have come at seven different tracks — Gold Coast and Albert Park (two each), Perth, Tasmania, Darwin, The Bend and Sandown.

Van Gisbergen defeated Kostecki in the AGP opener by 0.391s, before Broc Feeney beat Andre Heimgartner by 0.911s in the finale.

Van Gisbergen overhauled Kostecki in the controversial Perth opener and won by 0.595s, with Will Brown edging Heimgartner by 0.686s in the Tasmania opener.

The fourth closest finish of the year came in a nail biting Darwin opener won by Mark Winterbottom, who beat Feeney by 0.456s to claim his first victory since 2016.

Then, there’s Kostecki beating Waters by 0.946s in the Bend finale, before Feeney survived a late restart to beat Kostecki by 0.982s in the Penrite Oil Sandown 500.

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship will conclude at the VAILO Adelaide 500 on November 23-26.

For the record, Feeney defeated Chaz Mostert to win the Adelaide finale last year by just 0.964s.