This week’s Pirtek Poll asked if Brodie Kostecki can be stopped in his march to a maiden Repco Supercars Championship – and the responses are almost as close as the title fight itself.
The points lead has been held by Cam Waters, Chaz Mostert, swapped between Kostecki and his team-mate Will Brown, with the Red Bull Ampol Racing entries of Shane van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney all jostling in a close battle for the top spot.
With the lead swapping – Kostecki having wrestled it from Mostert at Albert Park with his maiden victory, then having it taken from him by Brown at Townsville – no one had won a race wearing the championship leader’s orange numbers.
That is, until Brodie Kostecki arrived at The Bend for Round 8.
The #99 Erebus Motorsport driver put on a dominant display at the South Australian circuit, winning all three races, scoring two pole positions and one set bonus points for fastest lap.
The momentum has swung Kostecki’s way.
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Since that first race victory at Albert Park, the West Australian has added a further five wins to his Supercars resume, and heads to the endurance races – kicking off with the Sandown 500 in September – carrying an enviable 137-point advantage over reigning champion Shane van Gisbergen.
That deficit, however, is less than the 150 points lost by van Gisbergen after he crossed the line in Race 1 at Newcastle in a Red Bull Ampol one-two, only for both drivers to be disqualified after a pit stop technical breach.
While worth noting, it doesn’t change Kostecki’s performance – and the fact that he is leading with a greater advantage, albeit small.
Behind the lead pair, Feeney is 245 points behind the championship leader while Brown has dropped from second to fourth after a weekend to forget at The Bend.
Brown is now a significant 258 points in arrears, his low-scoring Bend weekend following a similarly luckless Race 19 in Sydney, where he was squeezed by Anton De Pasquale and David Reynolds at the first corner to end up spinning off the circuit.
Kostecki stamping his authority on the title battle came after his NASCAR Cup Series at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course where he posted a result of 22nd..
He will team up with David Russell for the endurance events, with the pair already enjoying considerable success, scoring a podium at last year’s Repco Bathurst 1000.
Yet with 1200 points still on offer this year’s Championship – the first of the Supercars Gen 3 era – is still far, far from decided.
That’s the view shared by you in this week’s Pirtek Pol, with the majority (55 percent) voting Yes to Brodie Kostecki being beaten to this year’s title.
However, like the on-track battle, it’s a very close result with 45 percent of voters saying that Kostecki won’t be beaten in his quest to secure his maiden title – he’s already too far up the road form his rivals and will only consolidate that.
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