The Repco Supercars Championship made its way to The Bend Motorsport Park in Tailem Bend, South Australia, for Race 20 of the 2023 season in the OTR SuperSprint.
Coca-Cola Racing by Erebus driver Brodie Kostecki won the pole for Race 20 with Castrol Racing driver Thomas Randle starting second to make up the front row.
Kostecki lost the lead shortly after the green flag was waived and fell to third place. Kostecki’s teammate Will Brown got turned around by Jack Le Brocq on the first lap which led to a three-car crash that also involved Cameron Hill and Jack Smith which led to a safety car.
Thomas Randle was the leader with Chaz Mostert sitting in second place. On lap nine, Brodie Kostecki made a power move to pass Mostert at Turn 14 for second place. Two laps later, he passed Randle for the lead at Turn 17.
Not long after Kostecki took the lead, Randle and Mostert both went to pit road along with Shane van Gisbergen and Cam Waters. On lap 13, Kostecki went to pit road. He emerged ahead of Mostert and Randle when they both were fighting for third place and made contact.
On lap 15, Race Control reviewed the contact and issued no penalties for Mostert and Randle. Mark Winterbottom was the leader and the last car to not pit. With three laps to go, Winterbottom pitted, handing the lead back to Kostecki. He had a 1.3-second lead over Mostert.
Kostecki led the final three laps to win his fourth race of the season by 1.718 seconds over Chaz Mostert. He now has an 80-point lead in the championship over Shane van Gisbergen.
The rest of the top ten finishers were Thomas Randle third, Cam Waters fourth, Shane van Gisbergen fifth, Broc Feeney sixth, Matthew Payne seventh, James Courtney eighth, Will Davison ninth, and Andre Heimgartner tenth.
Race 21 happens on Saturday at 11:20 pm and Race 22 is on Sunday at 2:20 am both on the Supercars YouTube channel.
