Supercars Bathurst 1000: Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood win after Anton De Pasquale and Lee Holdsworth run out of fuel

Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood have delivered Ford and Dick Johnson Racing a scarcely believable win in the Supercars Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama.

The pair looked to be out of contention for the victory in a race that, up until lap 156 of the 161-lap encounter, was run at record pace, in near-perfect conditions and without any safety cars.

The #17 Mustang was set for, at best, a podium finish, having fallen off the victory hunt at the penultimate pitstop, when the team took the precaution of changing the car’s brakes for the second time, but lost more than 25 seconds when a brake rotor would not mount on the hub.

That allowed the Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro of Anton De Pasquale and Lee Holdsworth to build a lead and they appeared on for a comfortable win. But the safety car finally appeared when Chaz Mostert clipped the wall at Forrests Elbow and ploughed into a wall with five laps left.

The result was De Pasquale, polesitter Zach Bates (Matt Stone Racing Chevrolet) and Kostecki nose-to-tail with three laps to go.

But Team 18 had elected to short-fuel De Pasquale at his final stop, to cement track position, and over-did it. De Pasquale’s advantage evaporated when the car slowed on the final climb up Mountain Straight, losing the lead and dropping to an eventual and tearful retirement.

Photo by: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

Kostecki, who was working with team manager Tom Moore in a new role after his regular race engineer George Commins missed the race due to a mountain bike accident last weekend, could scarcely believe what happened in the final laps.

“We were going so well during the race, like I said, the Mountain always chooses the winner,” said Kostecki, “Tom gave me all the information I needed. It’s great to win another one with this guy [Hazelwood].”

Second place went to a Ford, with Will Brown and Scott Pye scrambling through the top 10 in the Triple Eight Mustang, the pair using pit strategy and smart driving to overcome a lack of speed compared to come of their opposition.

Matt Stone Racing hung on for a stunning third place, as the minnow team was expected to fade during the race, but a flawless opening three stints by Aaron Seton and Bates, set them up for an unlikely late-race victory charge.

The pair were delighted with the podium but without a safety car – and aided by the Team 18 fuelling error – Seton and Bates would have taken the win.

Jack Le Brocq and Harri Jones took fourth in the sister car having been in or around the top 10 all day, and by the time the flag came out was with three seconds of the win.

Fifth was a great result for 2025 winner Matt Payne. After co-driver Will Davison started the race Payne’s opening stint turned into the double when he copped a five-second penalty after tangling with David Reynolds. Then a wheel rolled across the Grove Racing pitbox marker and was retrieved by an unauthorised crew member, the result being a pitlane drive-through penalty.

It was a great fightback and with it, Payne maintains his championship points lead.

Matt Payne, Grove Racing

The biggest challenges that many teams had to face were around tyres and brakes. By the end of the first one-hour stint some cars were already starting to find blistered rear tyres and as the temperatures rose – and track temperatures exceeded 37C – some even delaminated.

One of the difficulties was that the Dunlop tyre in use for the race for the second time was largely untested in the 2025 race, which was mostly run in cool and rainy conditions.

The brake problems seems to be down to what some team members described as inconsistent quality with the control brake pads, with slight variations between two batches of the Ferodo-supplied brake pads.

“These good old brake batches that we get given can’t last more than 60 laps,” said Grove Racing co-owner Breton Grove told the event’s TV broadcast.

“The problem is now we’ve changed brakes after 70 laps or something and we’ve got 85 laps to go. Let’s see if we can make it home. It’s a joke that we’re at this level and the brakes can’t last a race.”

Andre Heimgartner and Bryce Fullwood were the best of the Toyota teams in seventh, their Brad Jones Racing GR Supra not quite having the speed to challenge for the win. James Golding and Richie Stanaway were eighth for the Blanchard Racing Team, ahead of Thomas Randle and Reuben Goodall (Tickford Racing Ford) and Craig Lowndes and Bayley Hall in the wildcard entry Team 18 Chevrolet.

With his fourth place, Le Brocq takes the 10th and final place in the Supercars Finals series, with the fight for the title going to the streets of the Gold Coast on 23-25 October.

Supercars Bathurst 1000 - race results

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