Supercars show misses Kostecki – Morris

The 2023 champion sat out the first event since he clinched that title as a result of what is understood to be a rift within Erebus Motorsport.

Stepping into the breach was Todd Hazelwood in what remained the #99 Chevrolet Camaro entry and, as it stands, there is no real prospect of Kostecki returning to the grid this year.

Morris, a friend and mentor of the 26-year-old, says he has fielded plenty of questions of late about how Kostecki is faring.

That prompted ‘The Dude’ to take to social media with his thoughts as to what resonates with Supercars fans about Kostecki, whom he likened to Ken Miles, the engineer/driver whose exploits were portrayed in the Ford v Ferrari movie.

“We’ve all seen the movie Ford v Ferrari, and in that movie, there’s a character called Ken Miles, and for me and a lot of people, he is the star of the show,” said Morris in a Facebook video.

“He’s the driver, he’s the engineer, he’s the guy that quite doesn’t give a shit sometimes but will tell you in his own way without being a smartarse.

“[He has] A different sense of humour, but not showy, not flashy, and when he gets in the car, he does spectacular things.

“So, for me, the star of Ford v Ferrari is Ken Miles and for me the star of the V8 Supercar show is Brodie Kostecki, and that’s why people like him, and that’s what people miss about him not being on the grid.

“So, I’m not going to get into the politics of it all; I just think the show misses him, I think the people that were around him last year miss him, and somehow, somewhere, this has got to be put right.

“We’ve got to get him back on the grid because the fans want him, I want to see him race, everyone wants to see him race.

“He’s one of those guys that just comes along once in a generation that just does something cool with a race car, and his engineering ability and the way he thinks about going car racing is a little bit different to everyone else’s.

“He’s one of those unique individuals that just needs managing the right way and you see him do spectacular things.

“So, I want to see him on the track again this year, the fans want to see him on the track again this year.

“Let’s all hope that this can get resolved and we can see him drive something this year.

“I don’t care what it is, but I would love to see him driving.”

Kostecki has kept a low profile since news of the rift was revealed by Speedcafe, with his only public appearance being at last month’s Motorsport Australia National Awards.

There, he was on stage twice to accept honours but was guarded during his speeches, presumably because of legal/contractual issues.

Morris’s remark about “managing the right way” is more significant because, in the same video, he also passes comment about how Will Brown has been embraced at Triple Eight Race Engineering.

Kostecki and Brown were team-mates at Erebus from 2021 to 2023, winning the teams’ championship in the final year together, even if the latter’s results tailed off dramatically in the second half of the campaign.

Brown now leads the championship after the season-opening Thrifty Bathurst 500, where he edged Triple Eight incumbent Broc Feeney.

“The reason he can do that is, Triple Eight know how to treat racing drivers,” declared Morris.

“Triple Eight have got a great reputation of maximising the performance of the driver.”

Watch the full video below, where Morris goes on to explain how Triple Eight understands that the best race car drivers tend to be “weirdos” in some fashion.