Brodie Kostecki takes bragging rights before the top 10 shootout at Bathurst on Saturday afternoon after usurping Broc Feeney by 0.006s in the dying moments of Friday’s session.
“It’s an incredible feeling and I’m pretty excited about tomorrow [the shootout],” said Kostecki.
“I feel really privilegedto be driving for this team and we’ve been chipping away at the race car the whole time we’ve been here.
“I’m stoked with the car we have so far and really happy with my lap. I still believe we have a lot to find in the car to make it better.
“We’ve been spending more time on getting a good race car rather than a qualifying car and we’ve got a good window to do that because you win the race on Sunday.”
There is one Kiwi who will be vying for pole. Ryan Wood pulled a lap out of the bag to secure the third-fastest time and position himself for a tilt at pole.
“It’s going to pretty awesome to have the track to myself for the shootout,” said Ryan. “It’ll be balls to the wall and I’m really looking forward to it. It will be my first top 10 shootout at Bathurst, which is cool and again we’re still focused on Sunday.
Brodie Kostecki finished top in Bathurst qualifying on Friday. Photo / Photosport
“It’s really helpful having Greg [Murphy] in my corner and a massive advantage. I’ll be focusing on my processes and making sure I knuckle down and look at the micro sectors because they all matter.”
It was one of the tightest qualifying sessions on record with two tenths of a second separating the 10 fastest drivers.
The rest of the Kiwis couldn’t quite get it going with Matthew Payne in 18th, Andre Heimgartner 19th, Richie Stanaway 23rd and Jaxon Evans 24th. The final New Zealander in the field Fabian Coulthard will be watching his co-driver Chaz Mostert challenge for pole from sixth.
Early in the qualifying session, Feeney, Kostecki and Will Brown were setting the pace. Best of the Kiwis was Wood in sixth and Payne in 10th as only hundredths of a second separated the top 10.
At the halfway point, Feeney surged to the top of the times with surprise package Cameron Hill second fastest from Wood, who had decided to give it a decent nudge, followed by Brown, Cam Waters and Mostert.
As the qualifying session wound down, Feeney was still on top from Cooper Murray, Anton De Pasquale, Wood and Kostecki.
In the first practice session on Friday, Feeney topped the timesheets towards the end of the hour-long session just ahead of Wood. Feeney’s teammate Brown was third-fastest from Waters and David Reynolds.
The rest of the New Zealanders in the field struggled a little with Heimgartner 10th, Stanaway 21st, Evans 23rd and Payne was back in 25th.
The practice session before qualifying was a different kettle of fish with Mostert topping the timesheets from Nick Percat, Kostecki, James Golding and Hill.
Surprise of the session was Golding who, despite smacking into the wall at Griffin’s Bend and having to replace a wheel, finished fourth on the time sheets.
Early pace setters Feeney Brown and Reynolds were still lurking in the top half of the field in ninth, 13th and seventh respectively. The Kiwis didn’t fare too well with Payne 10th, Wood 18th, Heimgartner 23rd, Stanaway 24th and Evans 25th.
The top 10 shootout to decide the front of the grid starts at 7pm Saturday NZ time.
