Dick Johnson Racing’s Brodie Kostecki. Image: Richard Gresham
The Dick Johnson Racing driver was outspoken on the subject across the weekend, which included a tense on-air confrontation with Mark Larkham on Saturday morning.
A shocking race for DJR on Sunday – in which Kostecki’s car was hampered by electrical issues and an accident – has not stopped the driver continuing his offence via the Lucky Dogs podcast.
Kostecki expressed frustration over Supercars TV’s handling of the situation, which centred around a report from Supercars that showed the Ford engine to be at a disadvantage at altitude.
The eight-page document detailed the results of dyno testing undertaken by the category in the lead-up to the event and included proposed changes to the Ford to close the gap to the GM.
However, the air restrictor change was effectively blocked by GM, as all teams had to sign it off under the terms of the Teams Racing Charter, while DJR declined a potential cam timing shift.
Kostecki hit out on the subject in Friday’s post-qualifying press conference, which was followed by TV segments with Mark Skaife and Larkham on Saturday morning.
Kostecki, Larkham in tense Bathurst 1000 parity exchange
Skaife pointed to the closeness of the qualifying results, while Larkham presented data to Kostecki showing his Mustang was faster than Broc Feeney’s Camaro in the speed traps.
The focus on the track performance rather than the barometric pressure testing report incensed Kostecki.
“It wasn’t our team that found out there was a difference, it was someone within Supercars,” Kostecki said on Lucky Dogs.
“Yet the way it was portrayed on TV from Skaife, Larko and a few others, no one seemed to want to acknowledge this report existed, which is pretty funny, and it got sent out to other teams.
“Treating your fans like they’re idiots doesn’t really go down too well.”
Kostecki was effectively the lone voice speaking out on the subject as Ford and DJR elected not to make any public statements.
“For me, I was pretty vocal about it and when I was on the drivers’ parade, there were so many different reactions,” Kostecki continued.
“There were cheers, I got mooned, I got called a f***ing wanker. But I didn’t mind. At least people were passionate. It caused such a big shitstorm but so much passion came out.”
That “shitstorm” included DJR on Saturday protesting Supercars itself, claiming the category was breaching its own technical parity rules by not allowing the change.
Thrown out by stewards who deemed it “inadmissible”, the DJR protest was based around a “lack of fairness” arising from the decision-making process.
‘Politics over parity’: DJR responds to Bathurst protest dismissal
Kostecki’s outspoken views on the lack of fairness were particularly notable given he won the 2023 Supercars Championship and last year’s Bathurst 1000 in a Camaro.
“At the end of the day, why would you go and ask the other team that you’re versing, Ford versus GM, to give up an advantage?” Kostecki said when asked of his success with GM.
“At the same time, I never complained about parity issues when I was in the GM, not once, because you didn’t need to, because it was up.
“That was pretty clear and that’s why I’ve been pretty vocal this year because everyone looks at everything… and that’s what the broadcast did too, they go, ‘look at the Shootout, it’s so close, it’s the closest ever, so everything’s OK’.”
Despite scoring provisional pole on Friday and leading a Ford top four sweep in the Shootout, Kostecki remains adamant the race would have been a Camaro walkover had it not rained.
“If you stay to the facts, the answers are there,” said Kostecki.
“But if you don’t and you let people go off and form opinions and get it all really muddy, that’s when you end up with shit shows like how it was on the weekend.
“Until it started raining, it was going to be the world’s boringest (sic) race. It was going to be the two T8 cars driving off into the distance.”
Triple Eight will switch from GM to take over from DJR as Ford’s homologation team and engine supplier next season.