The win came in a straight shootout with Triple Eight that was held over mostly green running and won on pace rather than fortune or quirky strategy.
Team owner Klimenko was invited onto the podium as the team representative where she was invited to speak and offered a brief victory speech.
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“This is magic and this is for the people who believed in the black, and for every single one of you that’s standing out there. Thank you,” she said.
While the speech didn’t draw much attention at the time, it was an interesting topic in the post-Bathurst edition of her famous Facebook posts.
She explained that she had butted heads with a Supercars employee over whether the drivers had time to use the bathroom, before further detailing her trip to the most sought-after podium in Australian motorsport.
“…they dragged me up the stairs so I arrived sweaty, puffing from running (short legs and keeping up) saw the lift, gave the Supercars guy a dirty look, and entered the back room looking for water, which I couldn’t find,” she wrote.
“So with a very dry mouth [I] went out and received the team trophy, then couldn’t talk when interviewed, and for some reason said the first thing that came into my head – ‘thank you for believing in the black’.
“I ask you, who says that? Ha ha ha.”
Klimenko also delved into the issue that has underpinned Erebus’ season – the breakdown of the relationship with Kostecki that saw the reigning champion bench himself for two rounds.
Klimenko wrote it had been “the year from hell” while referencing “lies and stupid crap”.
“Thank you to everyone who stood by us all year and believed that the lies and stupid crap put out there about us was exactly that,” he said.
“I won’t lie, it was the year from hell, but standing there [on the podium] ignoring the idiots yelling out crap, I felt pride, love and loyalty to my team, my crew, our fans, our sponsors and the man who brought it all together, Barry Ryan.”
Erebus has maintained throughout the year that external factors were to blame for the Kostecki rift, rather than team or driver, while Kostecki has mostly stayed silent on the matter.
Both cases were on show during the post-race media commitments, starting with Kostecki who was asked if time heals all wounds in the press conference.
“I think so,” he said. “It’s one of those things and we’ve just won Bathurst so I just can’t thank all the crew enough and we’ll celebrate tonight.”
That response was put to CEO Ryan by Supercars’ Cool Down Lap Podcast, who responded with: “Yeah, well, I don’t even know what the wounds were.
“That’s the whole thing about the year. There were no wounds that we created, me or Brodie.
“So, external people created those wounds. And it will probably never get talked about, unless Brodie wants to. But I’m not going to talk about what happened, that’s none of anybody’s business.
“It’s a shame that it went that way and it’s turned our team into something that Brodie’s going to leave, which is very disappointing. But, you know, we wish him luck and we’re so proud that we’ve made him a champion and now Bathurst champion, and he can go off to another team and try and help them.
“And we’ll start off again, we’ll still have Jack Le Brocq, who did an awesome job today, but we have young Cooper [Murray], who was probably the standout driver today.
“So we’re still going to be in a really good position.”
Kostecki will leave Erebus to join Dick Johnson Racing for next season.
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