In a pilot episode for the new Lucky Dogs podcast with Brodie Kostecki, the former Erebus drivers spoke about the rigmarole that embroiled the championship.
The pair opened up on reaching their competitive limits with Erebus and their growing dissatisfaction at what they believed was a lack of spending to keep pace with their rivals.
When it became apparent that Shane van Gisbergen would depart Supercars for NASCAR at the end of 2023, an opening was created at Triple Eight where Brown eventually wound up.
“I was thinking that – and this is just the honest truth – I didn’t think it was sustainable at Erebus to keep on winning,” Brown explained.
“I thought we were doing a great job but we weren’t spending a heap of money and all of that sort of stuff like Red Bull was at the time.
“I thought these things only become available once every now and then. It doesn’t come up. If I don’t take this seat, it’s not going to come up for another 10 years because there’ll be Broc (Feeney) there and a young guy.”
Kostecki weighed in: “I guess that’s where the stuff started behind the scenes. We were trying to make it sustainable.”
Brown spoke about the phone call between him and Erebus owner Betty Klimenko to ask about an early exit from his contract, which still had one year left on it.
While nervous, Brown said those conversations were civil and ultimately wound up with Klimenko arranging an agreement with Triple Eight team principal Jamie Whincup.
Brown said that he was at his sister’s wedding when Erebus team principal Barry Ryan called to express his disappointment, but ultimately accepted his decision.
What followed was a fiery meeting including both drivers, their engineers George Commins and Tom Moore, and other Erebus personnel to announce Brown’s departure to join Triple Eight.
That led to threats of Brown being sidelined early.
“Then I remember at the time, that’s pretty much when Barry went and did the team meeting and told George [Commins],” Brown explained.
“He’s a bit more obviously… what would you call it? Out there, Barry. He gets a bit more angry and B1 [Bradley Tremain] was probably similar at the time. They were like ‘Nah, take him out of the car. Don’t run the rest of the year’.
Kostecki weighed in: “I remember they were like, ‘Take [him] out of the car, if he doesn’t want to be here, don’t put him in’.”
Brown continued: “George and Tom [Moore] were quite good because they were like ‘We want to win the teams’ championship and the only way we think to do that is with Will in the car’.”
Kostecki was in the United States for his NASCAR Cup Series debut at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when that meeting happened.
He returned to Australia with fire in his belly, keen to defend Brown. It was at The Bend Motorsport Park where tensions in the garage rose and fuelled speculation of a feud.
Highly motivated, Kostecki won three races in a row.
“I was defensive in making sure you had the same opportunity as myself to run for the championship,” Kostecki explained.
“Obviously all that was happening – ‘We’ll pull you out of the car’ – and I was highly against that. We had put in a lot of effort to build the team up.
“It wasn’t just us. We also owed it to Tom, George, and everyone else. B1, he couldn’t see it at the time because he was siding with Barry, but we owed the opportunity to everyone to finish the year off on a high.
“That’s what I wanted to do was to have it as equal as possible, so that was definitely a lot of stuff going on around behind the scenes when I was in America. Tailem Bend was a pretty interesting weekend.
“We went out for practice that weekend. I can’t remember how you went in practice but I had steering dramas in practice and I couldn’t even complete a lap. I was losing it over that because the steering wasn’t good and then it was just like ‘Oh, now Brodie doesn’t want to be here’.
“It just became real messy. I remember the first laps I did in qualifying I was on pole by six tenths. I was like ‘Holy shit’.”
Brown said his side of the garage “fell apart” amid a performance downturn while Kostecki went on to finish three of the last six races on the podium to win the championship that year.
“When I look back on it, I was down at the time, but I always knew that was going to happen, but also it’s hard,” said Brown.
“We’d do a lot with our mechanics, and they were great guys, and worked on keeping them together. My side of the garage, it’s hard to keep your team together when you’re leaving.
“It’s kind of like saying to your girlfriend, ‘Yeah, I’m leaving in six months time’. She’s not going to be happy with you for the next six months,” he laughed.
Brown went to Triple Eight and Kostecki endured an up-and-down 2024, headlined by his absence in the first two rounds before winning the Bathurst 1000 with Todd Hazelwood.
On Kostecki’s absence, Brown said it was a wild time for the sport, while Kostecki said it was a “tough time” for him.
“You look back, and it was such a big deal at the time, but now it’s not really,” said Brown.
“I thought it was great for the sport because it hit Seven News, hit Nine News. It’s kind of the old thing – any media is good media.
“It was unfortunate for you sitting at home watching, but it was the biggest thing.”
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