Randle wins Super2 Race 3 after Kostecki off

Thomas Randle has won Race 3 of the first round of the Dunlop Super2 Series in Adelaide as Brodie Kostecki salvaged a spectacular third after an off while leading.

Kostecki, who reported a power steering failure post-race, still leads the series at the conclusion of his first weekend with Eggleston Motorsport.

However, his margin has been snipped to two points over MW Motorsport’s Randle, who beat Will Brown by 2.3575s in the final encounter of Round 1 at the Superloop Adelaide 500.

Jordan Boys and Jayden Ojeda rounded out the top five, while Jack Perkins and Josh Fife were DNFs following an incident which has the former under investigation.

Kostecki (#38 VF Commodore) took the initial lead due to a better secondary launch than Randle (#16 Altima), who slotted into second.

MWM rookie Ojeda (#31 Altima) made the best start of anyone to take up third position, from which he held off Brown (#999 VF Commodore) when the field got to the end of Wakefield Road for the first time.

Ojeda opted to step aside when he saw Brown coming at Turn 9 on Lap 2 but left so much room that Boys (#49 VF Commodore) was able to follow his Image Racing team-mate through the gap.

Brown had given up two seconds to Randle by that point, with Kostecki about half a second further ahead.

That changed quickly when the winner of the first two races of the weekend ran long at the end of Wakefield Road in the heavy-steering Commodore on Lap 3 and dropped to fifth, behind Ojeda.

Randle had just crossed the control line with a 1.6s lead over Brown when a Safety Car was called during Lap 8 for a melee at Turn 9.

Perkins (#54 Eggleston Motorsport VF Commodore), who was deep in the field after himself being taken out a day earlier, had tagged the right-rear corner of Fife’s #14 Brad Jones Racing VF Commodore and was in turn piled into by Zak Best (#78 MWM Altima).

Kostecki put a textbook move on Boys for third at Turn 9 on Lap 13, the third after the Safety Car, and quickly wiped out the eight-tenths gap to Brown.

Brown played defensive at the end of Dequetteville Terrace on Lap 16, hanging Kostecki out wide and allowing Boys to reclaim third.

Boys, however, had a slow run into the parklands section two corners later, which incentivised Kostecki to attack again.

He got up on the ripple strip through Turn 13, managed to catch the slide, and was still able to get back down the inside of Boys as they entered the main straight, which put him back in the series lead.

Randle had cleared out as all that was going on and, with the race going time-certain, just had to bring his Altima home in the one lap which remained.

Brown took the chequered flag half a second up on Brodie Kostecki, who was followed by Boys, Ojeda, Matt Chahda (#18 Matt Chahda Motorsport FGX Falcon), Broc Feeney (#5 Tickford Racing FGX Falcon), Kurt Kostecki (#55 Kostecki Brothers Racing VF Commodore), Angelo Mouzouris (#10 Triple Eight Race Engineering VF Commodore), Zane Morse (#11 Zane Morse VF Commodore), and Best.

Round 2 supports the Tyrepower Tasmania Super400 at Symmons Plains on April 3-5.

Results: Race 3

Series points Updated