2023 Supercars and Supports.

[Vassago]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Looks like T8 won't bother sending SVG out to be classified so that's a double DNF.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Another rookie year race winner.

Happy for Grove as well given the turnaround since the Kelly days.

Payne wins! Feeney 2nd abd Reynolds 3rd.

Erebus tie up the Team Championship

Bit of a sad send off weekend for SVG

CYA Jack Smith

Lol Brodie almost took out the trophy table doing donuts on the pit straight

[Vassago]

9 Fords in Top 12. So it was all aero for the parity and well, guess DJR wasn't the best choice for a homologation team. Maybe should have gone with Tickford?

[Everso Biggyballies]

Looks like T8 won't bother sending SVG out to be classified so that's a double DNF.

His first consecutive or double DNF in over a decade.

[Everso Biggyballies]

We had a few special deliveries made after the end of the race, in the form of drivers moving to their new home. Its a traditional end of term habit in V8SC when a driver moves on to another team at the end of the season.

Nick Percat was one, delivered by WAU/Mostert to his new home MSR.

Team 18 got a special delivery from Penrite Racing.

Jack Le Brocq was carried into the Erbus Garage by his engineer Jack Bellotti. Cant find a pic or video of that though

[Everso Biggyballies]

Good to see that the very humble and nice guy I see in Brodie K seems to be an opinion shared by his peers....

Not only did he go to the post race Supercar's Gala Awards Dinner to be awarded his 2023 Drivers Champion Trophy, but Brodie was also awarded the "Driver's Driver" award. Thats the equivalent of Football's "Best and Fairest" award, voted for by teams officials and drivers, so Brodie is clearly highly respected and likd by those from the opposition..

“.....Yeah, it’s truly an honour to receive that trophy and to be voted by your peers is just awesome.

“It’s a pretty cool feeling to be collecting both trophies and something I’ll cherish forever.”

Nevertheless, Kostecki was keen to reiterate that his triumph, and Erebus’s team’s championship title, was a product of the effort of dozens of people in the background.

“It’s something that means a lot to my team,” he remarked.

“Obviously, winning the drivers’ championship is something I’ve always wanted to do and, honestly, four years ago, I didn’t even know that I’d even get to this stage [of being] a full-time driver.

“But, to win the teams’ championship as well, and see all the reaction on my team’s faces is something that I’ll never forget.

“Our sport’s pretty funny at times; it seems like we’re the ones in front of the cameras all the time, but there’s 20 or 30 people behind the scenes that are the ones putting in all the effort.

“To be able to deliver the team those trophies and see the smiles on their faces is something that I’ll never forget.”

.The other major Driver's Award dished out is the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy.
Named after the much missed Grand Prix motorcycle world champion and Aussie Domeciled V8 SC loving motor racing television commentator Barry Sheene. It is presented to the driver adjudged to have displayed "outstanding leadership, media interaction, character, personality, fan appeal and sportsmanship throughout the season"

Oh Chaz Mostert, who ended the year as the top Ford driver in fourth in the championship, won the Barry Sheene Trophy. Im sure he will cherish that more than his 4th place championship position, top Ford driver or not..

[Everso Biggyballies]

I just read a Roland Dane article about Brodie K and his struggles to get to where he is when he got back from the US a few years back. I must admit I had always thought he had got on the ladder with family money..... I wrongly assumed that with three Kostecki all running under Kostecki Racing that it was family money and he was another Kelly type of bankrolled by family effort. Im sure the family helped but it seems I got a lot wrong with my assumptions. I did come around at the start of his V8SC career and soon realised he was a good driver with huge prospects.... I remember @Vassago asking if he was the real deal and saying I felt he was. Had the question been will he win a Championship with Erebus within the next 3 years I can assure my answer would not have been yes. Brodie and all at Erebus have been helped by the timing of the full reset of Gen 3, no doubt, but all credit to the job they have done.

It seems Brodie did things really tough, homeless, couch surfing and using his engineering skills to build other people's cars etc.for a quid. He got some lucky breaks from people like Roland, Paul Morris Betty and others due to his willingness to get stuck in, plus of course his ability and understanding, plus tireless endevour..

For Roland to say Brodie's "Larry Perkins-like engineering understanding was a vital ingredient to his success this year," is as good a complement as you can get to someones engineering brain.

ANyway this is Rolands account and its a good interesting read.

Roland’s View: As inspiring as Chariots of Fire


Brodie Kostecki helping to prepare a Hyundai Excel for racing in Townsville in 2020.

Brodie Kostecki’s route to the very top of Australian motorsport has not only been unconventional but is also a story of huge courage and determination.

It’s a story that deserves telling, in a small way, today.

When measured against the security and stability of the lives of recent past champions, such as Jamie Whincup, Scotty McLaughlin, and Shane van Gisbergen, Brodie’s recent years have been far tougher. He’s had to be very resourceful and resilient since he returned to Australia from his stint in the USA.

Brodie started his Supercars career in an old Super2 Falcon back in 2017 whilst his cousins, Jake and Kurt, were in ex-Triple Eight VF Commodores. He learned the basics of Supercar racing as well as some of the tracks, but not that much else.

Then, in 2018, he joined the family Super2 team with Jake and Kurt and spent his non-racing hours working on both his car and those of his cousins. Now, with good equipment and using his own skill sets, he worked his way to the pointy end of the grid, winning on the streets of Newcastle at the end of the year in what was a self-prepared car. Brodie finished the year fifth in the points standing and easily the best Kostecki.

Over the summer of 2018/19, when most of Brodie’s contemporaries were out on their jet skis, Brodie was working hard preparing young Ryan McNamara’s sprintcar. He’d picked up plenty of expertise in the sprintcar world as a mechanic by that time and he put it to good use with Ryan.

He was also sleeping on floors wherever he could find somewhere, including many nights with the McNamara household. That’s Ken and Wendy Mac, who own and run KRE Race Engines, sole suppliers of the Chevrolet Camaro power plant to the Gen3 Supercars programme.

Into 2019, with Kurt Kostecki now at Triple Eight, the call was made after Round 2 by the family team that Brodie would stand down from driving in Super2 whilst his car was converted into a ZB Commodore in order to compete as a wildcard entry in the Bathurst 1000.

So, Brodie was tasked with doing the bulk of the work in building up the facelifted car for he and Jake to drive at Mount Panorama. No mean feat.

h[img]ttps://media3.speedcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Brodie-Kostecki-wildcard-prep-32.jpg[/img]
Brodie Kostecki and cousin Kurt Kostecki working on the ZB Commodore which underpinned their enduro wildcard campaign in 2019.

By this time, I’d come across Brodie whilst he was working with Ryan McNamara and around the paddock a few times so, with input from Paul Morris, I decided to give him an opportunity to do a test for Triple Eight at Queensland Raceway around mid-2019. The test day was a success and Brodie did exactly what was asked of him.

But there was one issue. And that was that Brodie was simply too big to be taken seriously as a professional Supercar driver going forward. I told him in words of one syllable my opinion.

And to his eternal credit, he reacted immediately and put his head down to lose weight and be ready for Bathurst. He lost around 30kg and also got stuck into training.

Come Bathurst, Brodie was looking much sharper. Unfortunately, a cool box malfunction and subsequent inhalation of carbon dioxide on the way to the grid didn’t start the day well and he and Jake DNF’d. But not without learning a great deal.

As 2020 loomed, Brodie had nothing on the table. The family team had been disbanded post-Bathurst 2019 and he was left with no programme, apart from couch surfing.

Enter Paul Morris and the Egglestons.

Paul persuaded Ben and Rachael to give Brodie an opportunity in one of their Super2 cars, on the basis that he’d earn his drive through helping Ben with the preparation of the cars. This wasn’t some young bloke coming through the door with a swag of dollars to buy a seat.

This was an unemployed mechanic with an aptitude for thorough race car preparation who was so keen to prove himself as a driver that he’d sleep on any floor, drive any shitbox, and go to whichever corner of the country he needed to at the drop of a hat if it even smelt like half an opportunity.

At the first Round in Adelaide, Brodie duly won two of the three Super2 races. And then COVID hit.

In the ensuing weeks of uncertainty, Brodie would travel between the Egglestons and the Morris enclave when borders allowed, sleeping rough if he had to. That was a time when the Norwell Motorplex became our social club with the focus on building and testing Hyundai Excels.

Brodie Kostecki Excel

The Sydney Motorsport Park COVID road trip.

We had a memorable road trip in June 2020 down to Sydney Motorsport Park where Broc Feeney and Nash Morris raced their Excels. Brodie was a part of the support team as lead mechanic, race engineer, and tyre man. In fact, he was pretty much everything apart from my chauffeur. That was Broc.

And when Victoria decided to close up completely, Brodie stayed in Queensland with Paul, famously arriving with all his worldly goods in two bin liners.

He and Nash then built a brand-new Excel that debuted at the Townsville street race in September. A couple of podiums later and the car was sold for a record price for an Excel at the time! That helped keep Brodie in shoes for a little while.

One of the greatest achievements of the Supercars management at the time was enabling the Bathurst 1000 to run that year, given the COVID-induced obstacles. And Brodie was given a break by Barry Ryan at Erebus.

Brodie Kostecki Hyundai Excel

At Townsville for the 2020 Excel ‘World Challenge’. Image: Supplied

He co-drove with Anton de Pasquale in one of the Erebus entries and famously diced with Jamie Whincup early in the race showing that he wasn’t fazed in the least by going head-to-head with the GOAT, who came off worst on the day.

The #99 car went on to finish ninth that day and in doing so, slightly nudged open a door for Brodie that would eventually lead him to his Supercars Championship.

With both Anton and David Reynolds leaving the team at year end, and Will Brown already slotted into one seat, there was an opportunity.

Here’s where Paul Morris played a huge role. Whilst Barry Ryan was prepared to consider having two rookies in the Erebus Supercars team in 2021, Betty Klimenko wasn’t. Until Paul worked his charm and persuaded her to give Brodie a chance.

Betty, to her credit, understands as much as anyone just how important it is to be given a break in life. And she gave Brodie that break.

The rest is recent history.

Gen3 gave Brodie an opportunity like no other. He could use his adaptability, his experience from driving all sorts of often substandard cars, and his mechanical ability to get the most from the new car whilst many others floundered.

He also demonstrated that he’s got a real racing brain on track, rarely getting involved in marginal situations that could result in penalties or a DNF, whilst all the time reading the shape of the race. That’s how championships are won.

His Larry Perkins-like engineering understanding was a vital ingredient to his success this year, but in this day and age you also need sheer outright pace to win. Like Brodie showed by taking two poles on the streets of Adelaide last weekend.

In only his third season, Brodie has beaten many drivers who have been in the championship for many years without ever looking like winning. And, even if you just take the Chevrolets, everyone started the year with equipment that had never been more equal in the history of the sport.

It’s truly refreshing to see a young guy make it all the way to the top of the sport in this country without a silver spoon anywhere near his mouth.

From professional couch surfer to Supercars Champion in four years. Huge congratulations Brodie.

It’s now incumbent upon Supercars as an organisation to ensure that this fabulous Australian Story is far more widely told in the coming weeks.

. https://www.speedcafe.com/2023/11/29/ro ... s-of-fire/


Brodie Kostecki celebrates becoming a Supercars champion.

[Everso Biggyballies]

No secrets unveiled with this, rather just confirmation of what we expected....

Tickford Racing has finally confirmed that Cam Waters and Thomas Randle will form its two-car line-up for the 2024 Supercars season.


Its been an open secret that is how it would end up in line with their reduction from a four to two car. team this year. We already knew Courtney was off to Blanchard and the delay was something to do with legal complications on the Fraser vacation of the other seat, given he was at the end of the first year of a two-year deal. Monster and Castrol will continue to be major backers of the Waters and Randle cars.


So just the seat vacated by Jack Smith at SCT / BJR to be confirmed now

So that just leaves one seat outstanding..... that of the Jack Smith seat at Brad Jones Racing now he has called a day on his full time V8SC career. It seems the car will continue with a different driver and potentially different / additional backing no doubt brought in by the chosen driver.

It seems Zak Best the Super 2 runner up is the favourite to get the honours but Fraser's name keeps popping up as a potential alternative. There is currently no indication on the timeline for SCT/BJR to make a call on who will get the nod for the seat next season.

Another name now in the loop is that of Kiwi Jaxon Evans, who races Porsches 'competently' and shared the SCT Camaro with Smith at both Sandown 500 and Bathurst this year and I think also at the 2022 1000.

[Everso Biggyballies]

So just the seat vacated by Jack Smith at SCT / BJR to be confirmed now

So that just leaves one seat outstanding..... that of the Jack Smith seat at Brad Jones Racing now he has called a day on his full time V8SC career. It seems the car will continue with a different driver and potentially different / additional backing no doubt brought in by the chosen driver.

It seems Zak Best the Super 2 runner up is the favourite to get the honours but Fraser's name keeps popping up as a potential alternative. There is currently no indication on the timeline for SCT/BJR to make a call on who will get the nod for the seat next season.

Another name now in the loop is that of Kiwi Jaxon Evans, who races Porsches 'competently' and shared the SCT Camaro with Smith at both Sandown 500 and Bathurst this year and I think also at the 2022 1000.

Confirmed: Jaxon Evans lands SCT Camaro seat

SCT Motorsport has confirmed that Jaxon Evans will drive its BJR-run Camaro in the 2024 Championship. He will do a shitload better than Smith thats for sure. He has quite a good CV and opened some eyes in the paddock with his drives in the SCT car particularly this year when as mentioned he was co driver to Smith in the Enduros.

Evans made a name for himself in Australia as the Carrera Cup Pro title winner in 2018, before winning the Porsche Junior Programme Shootout and embarking on a career as one of the Factory's own drivers.

His credits include the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland rookie title, the outright Porsche Carrera Cup France title, a Bathurst 12 Hour class podium (second in Pro-Am in 2020), a second place in the Porsche Supercup title race, and victory in the Nürburgring 12 Hour. He has also done some IMSA GT stuff in the US.

As said he was impressive in this years enduros , dragging the SCT Camaro from 22nd to 14th during his driving in this year’s Sandown 500 and then gaining 10 positions in the first stint of the Bathurst 1000.


SO this is the full line up for 2024.

2024 Supercars entry list

Number Team Driver
1 Erebus Motorsport Brodie Kostecki
9 Erebus Motorsport Jack Le Brocq

2 Walkinshaw Andretti United Ryan Wood
25 Walkinshaw Andretti United Chaz Mostert

3 Blanchard Racing Team Aaron Love
7 Blanchard Racing Team James Courtney

TBA Tickford Racing Thomas Randle
6 Tickford Racing Cam Waters

8 Brad Jones Racing Andre Heimgartner
14 Brad Jones Racing Bryce Fullwood
96 Brad Jones Racing Macauley Jones
TBA Brad Jones Racing Jaxon Evans

11 Dick Johnson Racing Anton De Pasquale
17 Dick Johnson Racing Will Davison

18 Team 18 Mark Winterbottom
20 Team 18 David Reynolds

19 Grove Racing Matt Payne
26 Grove Racing Richie Stanaway

23 PremiAir Racing Tim Slade
31 James Golding James Golding

TBA Matt Stone Racing Nick Percat
TBA Matt Stone Racing Cameron Hill

88 Triple Eight Race Engineering Broc Feeney
TBA Triple Eight Race Engineering Will Brown

[Everso Biggyballies]

The driver seats may now all be locked away for 2024 but announcements today of a couple of significant changes in senior pit wll positions ensure a bit more action in the V8SC Silly Season.

Story returns to DJR as Lacroix departs


The good news is that co-owner of DJR, Dr Ryan Story, who held the Team Principal role before he had to step down due to serious health challenging issues has hbeen facilitated by an upswing in his health.

After some doubt last year as to whether Celebrated engineer Ludo Lacroix stay and then choosing to stay he has ntoday been confirmed as leaing "to pursue other interests" Whether thes other interests are in Australia within other teams here or a return to his native France remains to be seen. Ludo will be sorely missed and lets not forget prior to overseeing the technical side of the DJR operation for the successes of the. Penske / Scotty Mac era he was in a similar role at Triple 8 in Aus.

Ludo started his illustrious career back in 1988 in France and via roles in French Touring Cars, the DTM and then the BTCC he joined Triple 8 in the UK at the end of the last millennium. Ludo moved to Australia in 2003 to join the then-Australian offshoot, Triple Eight Race Engineering as technical director and head of the engineering department. He was very closely associted with engineering the #888 car of Craig Lowndes.

From the DJR Website this outlines the changes within the team

Dr Ryan Story AM returns as Team Principal after stepping down at the end of 2020. Story, chairman and team co-owner, was responsible for rebuilding Dick Johnson Racing and led the Team to three Drivers Championships and three Teams Championships in his tenure from 2013.

Ben Croke joins Story as Team Manager, reuniting a successful partnership.

Celebrated Race Engineer, Ludo Lacroix, has chosen to pursue other opportunities and step back from the Shell V-Power Racing Team, having enjoyed an unparalleled career as the Team’s Competition Director since 2017.

The Shell V-Power Racing Team will field two FordMustang Gen3 Supercars in 2024 for Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison to be engineered by Perry Kapper and Richard Harris respectively. Kapper returns as a race engineer to the Team for the first time since 2010, having spearheaded the development of Gen3 for Ford and Dick Johnson Racing as Chief Engineer. Harris builds upon his strong relationship with Davison, with the pairing continuing into their fourth season with the famous Car #17.

As part of an overall engineering restructure, Mark Fenning has been appointed Director of Engineering to lead the charge as the Team focuses on returning to the front of the pack.

“2023 was a challenging year for us and certainly not at the level we aspire to be. We have learnt an enormous amount this year not only about the cars but in particular about ourselves. We have spent time reviewing the year and considering change” said DavidNoble, Chief Executive Officer.

“We pay tribute to the enormous effort of our staff and particularly thank Ludo for his contribution over many years and respect his decision to step back. In welcoming back Ryan to the fold and to have the experience and depth of talent in Mark Fenning and Perry Kapper in our engineering department, we have begun our 2024 preparations in earnest.”

https://www.djr.com.au/news/shell-v-pow ... 024-season

I have not read of this thought anywhere and it is from within my head, but, should Ludo remain based in Aus and V8SC I wonder if a jump from Technical Director Roles to a Team Principal / CEO type role to replace the outgoing Tim Edwards at Tickford might be on the cards?
Edwards himself was from a tech background. Ludo has nothing to prove in terms of his TD type talents, and a TP role might be his his next challenge. Having said that I am not sure of any news re the Edwards replacement at Tickford or whether they have already made plans, so it is pure conspiracy theory at this stage. .

Maybe Ludo has commitments in the garden for a few months? Who knows?

[Everso Biggyballies]

With Cam Waters talking today of his runs in NASCAR for 2024 he also confirmed that prior to his resigning with Tickford (on a one year deal with options for extending that) he had received what he calls big offers from T8 and WAU. That implies that Brown was likely not the first choice of T8 to replace SVG.

Cam chose to stay with Tickford because his deal there now allows him to pursue (non clashing) overseas interests ...while coy on his NASCAR aspirations, Waters confirms that he wants to race overseas at classic tracks, as well as reiterating his desire to compete regularly in the USA. He also believes Tickford and Ford will be back at the forefront next year once aero and engine parity adjustments are finalised for next year. I guess WAU, also Ford, had the complication of fitting in with the well settled at WAU Mostert, who he has been teamate with before.... with some at best controversial incidents between the two then teamates.

[Vassago]

That is a surprise unless NASCAR really saw the value of going international and well, SVG's Chicago performance was something that caught major news and didn't exactly hurt the series' ego since there is so much circus crap in the Cup on regular basis they can only go up from this. Plus Formula 1 has clearly said "eff it" to the Cup boys and is expanding their ventures around the country no matter what.