Kostecki welcomes prospect of wet Adelaide 500

Brodie Kostecki is not fazed by the prospect of a wet race at the Vailo Adelaide 500 despite being on the verge of the Repco Supercars Championship title.

The Coca-Cola Camaro pilot arrived in the South Australian capital with a 131-point lead over Shane van Gisbergen and has now provisionally qualified on pole position for the opening race of the weekend.

Red Bull Ampol Racing Team Manager Mark Dutton revealed that he is hoping for rain given the uphill task which they are facing to win either or both of the drivers’ and teams’ championships.

Kostecki, though, would also welcome some inclement weather, despite setting setting the pace in the dry this afternoon.

“I’m excited for either,” he said on Fox Sports.

“We’ve had a little bit of wet running this year at AGP [Australian Grand Prix, Albert Park] and our cars were fast.

“To be honest, yesterday… you don’t get a trophy for Thursday so it was kind of just circling around, and I know where the time’s there to be gained if I need to do it.

“We’ll see what tomorrow brings but I’m happy if the sun’s shining or if the rain’s coming done, but I’d rather the sun shining, just for all the fans and spectators here this weekend.”

Van Gisbergen is provisionally fourth on the starting grid and, should both he and Kostecki finish in the same positions in Race 27 tomorrow afternoon, then the latter would (unofficially) clinch the championship with a day to spare.

That is not something at the forefront of his mind, though.

“Not really; I treat every day the same as I’ve always done, and that’s to drive the car as fast as I can and what it’s capable of,” remarked the West Australian.

“We’ve obviously seen today what it’s capable of when I put a lap together, so I need to deliver what the team’s capable of and anything else is not really a good performance in my view.”

Nevertheless, Kostecki admitted he was “shocked” to learn he had topped Qualifying for Race 27, given he was experiencing radio and timing problems within the #99 Erebus Motorsport entry.

“We had a small timing issue and a few little radio problems during that session, so I was stoked to come away [with provisional pole],” he recounted.

“Once I got told, halfway through my in lap, that I was pole, I was pretty shocked to find that out.”

Practice 3 takes place tomorrow at 09:45 local time/10:15 AEDT, followed by the Top 10 Shootout for Race 27 later in the day.