BRODIE Kostecki is on course for a return to the Repco Supercars Championship grid in Townsville, aided by Dick Johnson Racing lightening his pre-event workload.
Kostecki battled through illness in the lead-up to and during the opening two days of last weekend’s Darwin Triple Crown before having to sit out the Sunday component.
It became clear just how crook the 2023 champion was when he slumped to the ground upon finishing the Saturday race in third and then missed the subsequent podium and press conference ceremonies.
Enduro co-driver Todd Hazelwood took the wheel of the Shell V-Power #17 and did a more than serviceable job in his absence while it emerged that Kostecki was also dealing with some form of back ailment.
Kostecki is tracking well in his recovery, DJR executive chairman Ryan Story reveals in the newest episode of PG and The Doc to be released tonight.
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“He’s doing well. He’s focused on going racing again in Townsville,” said Story.
“There’s a duty of care that we owe him as one of our employees, and we offer that same care and attention to anyone who works for us.
“The focus for us was certainly on his wellbeing. He’d been under the weather with a virus in the lead-up to the weekend.
“Supersub Todd Hazelwood got involved in the Track to Town. He did a phenomenal job in the car. I can’t think of any co-driver who wouldn’t want to jump in a car that George Commins and Brodie Kostecki have worked on throughout the weekend to get it where it was.
“That doesn’t take anything away from what he achieved. I don’t think there’s any other co-driver that could’ve qualified on the door of the Top 10 and finished the race in 12th. It was an extraordinary effort.
“Looking after Brodie through the course of the weekend was something that was a priority for us. The fact that his drink failed on Saturday only compounded the trouble he was in.
Pic: Ross Gibb
“He was in good shape Saturday night, he had some fluids put in him and bounced back well. But Sunday morning, he was in all sorts of trouble. To make that call (was a) super-big deal for us, but we all immediately jumped into ‘okay, how do we make sure he’s alright, let’s get him back to (Brisbane), let’s think about what comes next.’
“We want to give him time to get himself into tip-top shape, and that’s really what we’ve done.
“We’ve been able to talk to some of our commercial partners; he had commitments this week that we’ve been able to get him out of for the purposes of focusing on his recovery.”
The NTI Townsville 500 will take place across July 10-12.