The 2024 Bathurst 1000 was somewhat of a slow burner with the pole-sitting Erebus Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro of reigning Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood leading for the duration.
It had appeared that the 1000 km distance was set to run under green flags for the duration until Matt Payne lost control of his Grove Racing Ford Mustang at The Cutting, resulting in the sole safety car intervention and a 27-lap sprint to the flag.
This put the Triple Eight Camaro of Broc Feeney and Jamie Whincup on the tail of the leaders, with the two lead cars quickly gapping the field.
With neither Kostecki nor Feeney putting a wheel wrong, it was the Erebus car that took the flag by 1.3496s.
“I can’t believe it, this guy here [Hazelwood] did a stellar job all weekend,” said Kostecki after giving Erebus its second 1000 win – the other triumph coming in 2017 with David Reynolds and Luke Youlden.
“We had a really good car for the middle stint but as soon as the clouds came over we lost a little speed. They were 32 shootout laps [at the end].
The race gets under way at Bathurst
Photo by: Supercars
“You can bring your pace back a little bit and lose it a little bit.”
It was a deserving result for Kostecki, who stood aside for the opening two rounds of the championship and for Hazelwood, who stepped into the #1 Camaro at the Bathurst 500 and at Albert Park, and whose previous best result in a Supercars race was third place.
“Unbelievable, I think I am hallucinating. I am lost for words!” said an emotional Hazelwood.
“’Bush’ [Kostecki] is an absolute legend. It has been a tough year but when you win Bathurst, it makes up for everything. No better bloke to do it with, he is a wizard around the Mountain.”
Most of the race was an arm wrestle between Chevrolet’s two dominant squads, Erebus and T8. Kostecki, who started from pole position for the second year in a row, controlled the opening 28-lap stint, when he stretched away from Triple Eight’s Broc Feeney, then the third, when Feeney’s co-driver Jamie Whincup was in the blue Camaro for two consecutive 28-lap stints.
At one stage the two teams occupied the first five positions, with Jack Le Broc and Jayden Ojeda running fourth in the second Erebus Camaro, and then Craig Lowndes. The veteran drove careful first and third stints in Triple Eight’s wildcard entry, which started from grid 18, before handing over to co-driver Cooper Murray – who was later penalised for a breach of the safety car procedure.
When Le Brocq lost time in the final pitstop, dropping him from the top five, the race was down to Kostecki, Feeney and Brown, leading a pack of Ford Mustangs – Tickford’s Cameron Waters and James Moffat, Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth (Walkinshaw Andretti United), and Richie Stanaway and Dale Wood (Grove Racing).
The Payne/Tander car was the only retirement of the 2024 Bathurst 1000
Photo by: Supercars
When the final dash came, Brown’s speed was just not there. He and co-driver Pye were in the hunt for the podium but not much more, eventually finishing 13.6404s behind the winner.
Fourth came the best of the Fords. Waters mounted a strong recovery from his and Moffat’s problems, to hold off Mostert and 2023 winner Stanaway – who still does not have a confirmed seat for 2025.
The lack of Safety Cars for more than 125 laps meant that any small errors were severely punished. Waters hung onto the leaders until a trip up an escape road, losing eight positions before he recovered. Garth Tander did a similar thing in one of Payne’s Ford, dropping him five places.
Dick Johnson Racing’s Anton De Pasquale looked like a contender to lead the Ford challenge until he dropped around 30 seconds with a troublesome brake change during a pitstop.
Andre Heimgartner, whose Brad Jones Racing crew managed to get only 20 litres into the Chevrolet at the first fuel stop, 100 short of what was intended. The car looked to have top-six speed but with no mid-race yellow flag periods, was doomed to finish back in 16th place.
As a result of his third place Brown, who brought an 189-point lead to Mount Panorama, now leads by 204 points, with 2538 to the 2334 for Feeney, who moves to second. Mostert is third on 2313 from Waters (2074), James Golding (1718) and Payne (1659).
The next round of the Supercars Championship will be on the Gold Coast on 25-27 October for two 250km races around the tight streets of Surfers Paradise.
Supercars Bathurst 1000 Results
Source : Motorsport.com