Numb foot triggered crash for rookie Kostecki

Triple Eight will help customer operation Team 18 to try to find a solution for Kurt Kostecki’s discomfort after the teenager’s tough Supercars Championship debut in Townsville.

The Preston Hire-backed 18-year-old collected the Turn 10 wall on lap 51 of the 70-lapper after his foot went to sleep early in the race.

It was the longest test the Dunlop Series driver has been faced with as he leapt into the role to replace the injured Lee Holdsworth.

“Going from a 21-lap Dunlop Series race to a 70-lapper… we never had the chance to run a long race before to see what would happen,” Kostecki told Speedcafe.com.

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“It sort of started happening after lap 21 (the numb foot). Up until then we were running okay with the pack and saving the tyres.”

Team 18 will work with Triple Eight and examine any changes to the seat insert and his race boots to see if they can find more comfort for Kostecki.

“We will have a look at the seat insert tonight,” Kostecki continued.

“There are a lot of good guys at Preston Hire and at Triple Eight who have experienced things like this before.

“We will look at maybe changing my shoe to see if I can get a little bit more support.

“It’s a really big jump and you really don’t get to see how big it is until you get to race.

“In practice and qualy everyone is on it but until you are out there in a race situation extracting 100 percent from the car lap after lap, that’s when you find out how big a jump it is.

“As soon as my foot went to sleep I had to wriggle my toes and ultimately lost concentration.

“I was left-foot braking just to try to get my foot to come back and when I was thinking of my foot it was taking my concentration away from managing the car and trying to get the best out of it.”

Team owner Charlie Schwerkolt said the damage sustained to the Holden was restricted to bent steering, a few broken control arms and a broken brake caliper.

“He was obviously hot and was fatigued but he was doing a really solid job up until the crash,” Schwerkolt said of Kostecki, who finished six laps down in 25th.