The Repco Supercars Series concluded the weekend in Surfers Paradise, Queensland on Sunday afternoon for Race 26 of the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.
Coca-Cola Racing by Erebus driver Brodie Kostecki won the pole with Penrite Racing’s David Reynolds starting second. On the opening lap, the race went to a safety car after James Courtney, Macauley Jones, and Tim Slade were involved in separate crashes.
Kostecki held off everyone on the restart. He led up until lap 26 before making a pit stop one second behind David Reynolds. Reynolds went to pit road on lap 32. He came out in third place behind Matthew Payne. By lap 35, all drivers completed their pit stops with Kostecki leading Payne by 1.8 seconds.
On lap 43, David Reynolds caught and passed Payne for second place. Payne later lost third place to Cameron Waters on lap 50. On lap 56, Brodie Kostecki made a pit with Reynolds pitting four laps later. Reynolds led Kostecki by one second but Kostecki charged hard at Reynolds.
Like Saturday’s race, drivers were shown the bad sportsmanship flag including Chaz Mostert, Cameron Waters, James Golding, and Mark Winterbottom. On lap 64, Kostecki cut Reynolds’s lead down to five seconds. On lap 69, he caught Reynolds and tried to pass him at Turn 4 but was unsuccessful. On lap 72, Kostecki finally passed Reynolds for the lead.
However, Reynolds would get it back two laps later after Kostecki got wide at Turn 11. Kostecki made one last effort on the final lap but could not get it done. David Reynolds snapped a five-year losing drought beating Kostecki by .1889 seconds.
Kostecki increased his championship lead over Shane van Gisbergen by 131 points. The rest of the top five finishers were Cameron Waters third, Matthew Payne fourth, and Shane van Gisbergen fifth.
The Repco Supercars Championship concludes the 2023 season next month at Adelaide Parklands in Adelaide, South Australia, on November 25 and 26.
