Kostecki holds on to sweep Super2 at Sandown

Brodie Kostecki did a stellar job to hold out Paul Dumbrell in a wounded car and bag a second Dunlop Super2 race win less than 24 hours after his first.

The second-year driver battled a broken front anti-rollbar blade in the #57 Kostecki Brothers Racing VF Commodore which had Dumbrell all over him for much of the race.

When Dumbrell couldn’t find a way past, Chris Pither started to attack the #88 Eggleston Motorsport VF and that eventually gave Kostecki enough breathing space to not only win again, but now do it by being first to the chequered flag.

Dumbrell staved off Pither on the final lap to stretch his series lead to 226 points with two rounds and 600 points left on the table at Bathurst and Newcastle.

Kostecki started from first position for the first time after Garry Jacobson, the fastest man in Armor All Qualifying, was penalised three grid positions for impeding Chris Pither.

Pither was strong off the line but couldn’t put Dumbrell behind him at Turn 1 and had to slot the #44 Garry Rogers Motorsport VF Commodore into third.

The first few laps were in fact procedural as Brodie Kostecki headed Dumbrell, Pither, Jacobson (#26 MW Motorsport Nissan Altima), Kurt Kostecki (#55 Kostecki Brothers Racing VF Commodore), Dean Fiore (#23 MW Motorsport Nissan Altima), and Macauley Jones (#14 Brad Jones Racing VF Commodore).

It is believed that Car #57 broke the rollbar blade around Lap 9 of 22, and Kostecki gave up more than 0.8s of his nearly 1.2s lead on Lap 11 alone.

Dumbrell had a big look at Turn 4 on Lap 16 but Kostecki held on, bottling up the rest of the seven-car lead group.

Car #88 consequently had Pither and Jacobson swarming all over it as they climbed the back straight, and the other three joining in as they descended into Dandenong Road, but positions remained unchanged.

A Safety Car for the stricken Nathan Morcom, whose #54 Eggleston Motorsport VF Commodore had a clutch problem, meant that everyone cooled their heels for a lap before hostilities resumed on Lap 19.

Kurt Kostecki put his Commodore down the inside of Jacobson at Turn 1 on Lap 20, the contact taking both wide and elevating Fiore to fourth and Jones to fifth.

Race Control then announced a 15-second penalty to Fiore for a restart infringement.

Brodie Kostecki ran very wide into the first corner on the penultimate lap but survived again thanks in part to Pither’s attempt to pass Car #88 as Dumbrell looked to capitalise himself.

Kostecki already had a bit of breathing space when Pither had another crack at Dumbrell a lap later, but still to no avail.

Officially, the finish was Brodie Kostecki from Dumbrell, Pither, Jones, Kurt Kostecki, Jacobson, and Jake Kostecki.

Jake Kostecki (#56 Kostecki Brothers Racing VF Commodore), Alex Rullo (#62 MW Motorsport Nissan Altima), Thomas Randle (#5 Tickford Racing FGX Falcon), and Bryce Fullwood (#16 Matt Stone Racing VF Commodore) made up the top 10.

Will Brown (#38 Eggleston Motorsport VF Commodore) was 11th and Fiore 19th with time added after crossing the stripe fourth.

Round 6 of the series is the showpiece 250km enduro on the Saturday of the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 weekend, which will be held from October 4-7.

Results: Race 2 Updated*

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Car	Laps	Race time
1	57	Arcoplate Racing	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore VF	22	26:59.7441
2	88	Eggleston Motorsport	Paul Dumbrell	Holden Commodore VF	22	27:00.9306
3	44	Wilson Security PAYCE GRM	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore VF	22	27:01.1079
4	14	Payce	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore VF	22	27:01.8837
5	26	MEGA Fuels / MWM	Garry Jacobson	Nissan Altima	22	27:03.0708
6	56	Arcoplate Racing	Jake Kostecki	Holden Commodore VF	22	27:03.8241
7	62	Land Surveys / MWM	Alex Rullo	Nissan Altima	22	27:04.1700
8	5	Skye Sands	Thomas Randle	Ford Falcon FG/X	22	27:04.7985
9	16	Middy’s Electrical	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore VF	22	27:06.7041
10	38	Eggleston Motorsport	William Brown	Holden Commodore VF	22	27:06.8270
11	99	Wilson Security PAYCE GRM	Mason Barbera	Holden Commodore VF	22	27:09.2851
12	67	Paul Morris Motorsport	Shae Davies	Ford Falcon FG/X	22	27:09.3317
13	21	SCT Logistics	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore VF	22	27:10.0543
14	15	Auto One Racing	Adam Marjoram	Holden Commodore VF	22	27:10.8790
15	18	Auto One Albury	Matthew Chahda	Holden Commodore VF	22	27:12.5427
16	8	BGD Architects	Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore VF	22	27:12.7509
17	50	MotorsportPartsAustralia.com.a	Ricky Capo	Holden Commodore VF	22	27:14.3830
18	23	MW Motorsport	Dean Fiore	Nissan Altima	22	27:16.6056
19	55	Arcoplate Racing	Kurt Kostecki	Holden Commodore VF	22	27:17.5529
20	63	Eggleston Motorsport	Dominic Storey	Holden Commodore VF	22	27:26.1148
21	51	Grove Hire	Brenton Grove	Holden Commodore VF	22	27:48.2243
DNF	49	Dynamic Supplies	Jordan Boys	Holden Commodore VF	16	19:20.6473
DNF	54	Eggleston Motorsport	Nathan Morcom	Holden Commodore VF	13	18:29.7854

Series points Updated

Pos	Driver	Pts
1	Paul Dumbrell	1352
2	Chris Pither	1126
3	Brodie Kostecki	1087
4	Garry Jacobson	1033
5	Alex Rullo	983
6	Kurt Kostecki	959
7	Macauley Jones	920
8	William Brown	807
9	Thomas Randle	770
10	Dean Fiore	734
11	Jack Smith	723
12	Shae Davies	690
13	Bryce Fullwood	689
14	Jake Kostecki	670
15	Zane Goddard	613
16	Adam Marjoram	578
17	Dominic Storey	563
18	Mason Barbera	555
19	Matthew Chahda	508
20	Jordan Boys	429
21	Nathan Morcom	421
22	Brenton Grove	414
23	Tyler Greenbury	230
24	Ricky Capo	96
25	Gerard McLeod	51
26	Jaie Robson	48

* Car #55 issued 15-second post-race penalty for Careless Driving