The reigning Supercars champion and his Camaro are reemerging as a competitive force ahead of the year’s biggest races.

It’s been a muted season for Kostecki ever since returning from a two-round absence at the start of the campaign.

Amid swirling speculation about his 2025 plans, the 26-year-old is optimistic of finishing this year strongly.

Saturday at Symmons Plains produced just his second top-five finish of the year, and he was again among the first five when a collision with David Reynolds unravelled his Sunday.

Running multiple laps down after penalties levied for the Reynolds contact, a pit lane collision and pit lane speeding, Kostecki was encouraged by his Camaro’s pace.

“We were able to get a good read on the car, there wasn’t too much damage. It felt really good,” he told Supercars Trackside.

“We haven’t had too much pace lately, we’ve had a couple of results here and there. But I was really happy with the race car then, I’m excited going into Sandown.”

Kostecki and engineer George Commins have been playing catch-up amid a season that began with revised aero packages for both the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang.

“When I first came back, I think other teams were able to develop their cars a little bit and sort of, when I came back, we were a little bit behind the eight-ball,” he said.

“After this weekend, I’m starting to feel more comfortable with each round.

“We qualified really poorly in Sydney but raced really well, so we learnt a lot that weekend. I personally learnt a lot this weekend, as well as my engineer and Tom (Moore) on car #9.

“I’m just hoping to go into Sandown, it’s a really long race there, so you want to have a really good car during that race.

“I’m excited to be teaming up with Todd (Hazelwood) and hopefully we have a good shot at it.”

Kostecki came home second in the 2023 Sandown 500 and has a strong Bathurst 1000 record, finishing in the top four in each of the last three years.

Hazelwood could too shine in the endurance races, given his extensive main game experience includes the two events that Kostecki missed at the start of 2024.

Netting big results in the endurance races will require Kostecki to avoid the disasters that befell him on Sunday, including the clash with Reynolds.

That incident left Kostecki frustrated with the Gen3 wheel design, which has been in the spotlight on multiple occasions this year due to apparent inter-locking issues.

“I was racing Dave there for a bit and he was blocking and doing his thing,” Kostecki recounted.

“I tried to pass him the lap before at the hairpin and he tried to put me in the fence.

“It was a bit unfortunate, we rubbed, touched wheels, and the wheels are shithouse.

“His rear-end came off the ground and my [steering] wheel got ripped out of my hand.”

Kostecki sits 23rd in the Supercars Championship standings ahead of the Sandown 500 on September 13-15.