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Brodie Kostecki has been hailed for his mechanical and engineering nous by his team manager, Rachael Eggleston, after winning his first Dunlop Super2 Series round for Eggleston Motorsport.
The 22-year-old claimed two race wins and a third after mounting a spectacular recovery, sans power steering, in the latter encounter in Adelaide, having missed pole position by 0.0020s.
While Jack Perkins took out the penultimate round of 2019 on a countback in one of Eggleston’s Triple Eight-built VF Commodores, the race wins were the first for the Melbourne-based team since Will Brown’s breakthrough in Round 2 of last year at the Pirtek Perth SuperNight.
Kostecki, who had a hands-on role when racing with his cousins in Super2 and also last year’s Pirtek Enduro Cup, even shouldered much of the engineering work on his car in Adelaide.
“We have one engineer, if you like, for the team and that person is on the radio to Jack during the sessions,” Eggleston told Speedcafe.com.
“Ben Eggleston (co-owner) is on the radio to Brodie during the sessions but essentially, in between, Brodie is more than just a driver.
“He’s very mechanical- and engineering-focused as well, so whilst we all discuss amongst the whole team, he knows what he wants out of the car and he effectively leads where he wants to go.”
Kostecki’s performance was not especially surprising to the team.
He was a race winner in last year’s Super2 Series before dropping out to facilitate the enduro wildcard, and his maiden victory came in 2018 when he held off Paul Dumbrell, who was shooting for a second series win with Eggleston and third in total, at Sandown.
“To be honest, we were pretty confident having seen his results and how he’s performed previously,” remarked Eggleston.
“Last year when he did those couple of rounds, he was very strong, but also very strong at the end of the previous year.
“He beat PD at Sandown in 2018, so we always knew he was going to be towards the front of the field if everything fell into place, and obviously it did.
“He’s very at one with a Triple Eight car too – he knows them very, very well – and mechanically and engineering wise, he’s probably one of the smartest drivers I’ve ever met in that regard.
“For his age his mechanical and engineering understanding, it is just quite incredible.”
Kostecki, who also helped with Matt Stone Racing’s engineering efforts in last year’s Super3 Series, has been a presence working on his car at Eggleston’s workshop, but has also taken on multiple other jobs and a ‘nomadic’ existence to help enable his own racing.
“There’s no doubt, for a 22-year-old, he’s taken on a lot of commitments, and he is extremely dedicated to what he does,” said Eggleston.
“Basically, this is his life, so he puts everything he can into his racing and he takes it very, very seriously.
“Absolutely, he’s made a lot of sacrifices to be able to do this program.”
Explained Kostecki, “I’m actually a bit of a nomad at the moment.
“I’ve moved out of my place at the Gold Coast and I’m sort of just bouncing around a few of my mates’ places at the moment, just trying to get on my feet.
“My main focus this year was just to spend some time with Ben and ‘Rache’ and I’ve been lucky enough to spend some time with their family.
“They’re great people and I just can’t thank them enough for the opportunity that they’ve given me.”
Perkins is currently at the other end of the points table in the second Eggleston entry after being involved in two significant incidents in Adelaide.
He was taken out by Kurt Kostecki in Race 2 and therefore found himself deep in the field in Race 3, when he turned around rookie Josh Fife and was in turn hit by Zak Best.
Kostecki copped a drive-through penalty in-race while a Perkins was relieved of 30 series points after a post-race investigation.
“He’s naturally pretty gutted about the whole weekend,” said Eggleston of Perkins.
“Had he not got taken out by Kurt in the second race, he wouldn’t have been starting from the back, and he wouldn’t have been racing around people that he’s unfamiliar racing with.
“That’s not to say that they contributed to the incident, but (when) you’re not quite sure what they’re going to do or you haven’t raced them before so you’re not used to their style, et cetera, et cetera…
“Obviously, he was very apologetic to everybody; the other guys, and the team.
“We’re just focused on getting the car fixed, getting back out there at Tassie, and having them both up the front where they should be.”
Round 2 of Super2 supports the Tyrepower Tasmania Super400 at Symmons Plains on April 3-5.
