{"id":931119,"date":"2026-10-17T05:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T05:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/931119\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T05:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T05:50:14","slug":"supercars-news-brown-explains-willing-defence-in-bathurst-kostecki-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/931119\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: Brown explains willing defence in Bathurst Kostecki battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Brown\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBrodie Kostecki passed Will Brown for third on Lap 156 of the Bathurst 1000. Image: EDGE Photographics\/Stephen King<\/p>\n

Third-placed Brown made his final pit stop of the day at the end of Lap 142 with a 10-second advantage over Kostecki, who ran longest of all the front-runners before pitting on Lap 149.<\/p>\n

With just over 10 laps to go, Kostecki was five seconds in arrears of Brown.<\/p>\n

The Dick Johnson Racing driver quickly ate away at the gap to the Triple Eight Ford Mustang, reaching Brown on Lap 155.<\/p>\n

Kostecki looked to the inside at Hell Corner on Lap 156, but Brown blocked in reaction. That prompted race control to quickly deliver a bad sportsmanship flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they said that\u2019s Brodie coming out of the pits, I was like, \u2018oh jeez, this isn\u2019t gonna be good\u2019,\u201d reflected Brown.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did the numbers. I\u2019m like, \u2018oh yeah, six seconds over 10 laps, I should be able to hold that\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I noticed he was catching me. It was two seconds a lap. I just thought I\u2019d make it as hard as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t actually think it was for the win, to be honest. They were saying [about] Anton (de Pasquale) \u2013 we\u2019re not sure, we think he\u2019s out of fuel.<\/p>\n

\u201cBatesy was up the road and I wanted to get on the podium. We\u2019d had a hard fight all day and I wanted to be on the podium, so I was trying to position the car in the smartest spots I could.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen a bad sportsmanship flag come out so quickly, to be honest. That thing got thrown out quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair banged doors going up Mountain Straight and continued to jockey for position until the end of the lap.<\/p>\n

Brown joked that he should have \u2018hooked\u2019 Kostecki, later clarifying that the battle was never going to result in either driver ending up in strife.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp Mountain Straight we were just banging doors. I was actually enjoying it. I was like, \u2018oh this is awesome\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was nothing going to happen. He\u2019d give me one, I\u2019d give him one back and it was exciting. Maybe I just gave them all!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Finally, Kostecki sold Brown a dummy \u2013 swinging from the right-hand side of the track to the left, executing a block pass at Murray\u2019s Corner.<\/p>\n

It proved crucial in the outcome of the race as just moments later Chaz Mostert<\/a> crashed his Walkinshaw TWG Toyota Supra at Forrest\u2019s Elbow.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great battle,\u201d said Kostecki.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always love racing Will. I\u2019m sure he had a big grin on his face when he was trying to door me and push me off the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a smart bugger, he was trying to run me off and just make me drop one wheel off on entry to the last corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, I had 10-lap fresher tyres and my car was a lot quicker than his at that point in the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to get by him at some stage, I just wanted to make sure I got by without uprights and stuff hanging off of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kostecki said he was looking forward to the next 11 months, reminding Brown of who ultimately came out on top.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brodie Kostecki passed Will Brown for third on Lap 156 of the Bathurst 1000. Image: EDGE Photographics\/Stephen King…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,12356,2497,806,805,803,804,12357,85,14594],"class_list":["post-931119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bathurst-1000","tag-brodie-kostecki","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-slot1","tag-sports","tag-will-brown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}