Why Kostecki's Supercars absence isn't all bad news

With motor racing films in the news so much at the moment, here is a story pitch to consider.

A wealthy motorsport enthusiast buys a successful motor racing team, makes a number of dramatic (and expensive) changes and watches it become, well, less successful. Then, through a long series of ups and downs – best shown perhaps by a smash-cut dream sequence – they win the biggest race of the year. Cue tears, roll the credits and sit back to watch the box office receipts roll in.

What’s next? A sequel! Oh no, the team’s star driver ups and leaves, so they sign up two fresh-faced youngsters, tighten their belts and aim for the top. Both kids step it up and last year, one of them takes the title – and the team topples the big kids at the end of the pitlane and wins their own crown, and even more tears ensue.

It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Maybe it was.

Just what has happened to drive a wedge between Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki and Erebus Motorsport will, in all likelihood, come out in the fullness of time. But for right now, what we do know is this; when it comes time for 24 Supercars to take to the track to open the 2024 season (on the hallowed tarmac of Bathurst, no less) Kostecki will not be there.

What has been confirmed is that Kostecki will be sitting out the opening round; beyond that, who can say? After a pair of somewhat optimistic statements, both the team and Supercars will be hopeful that whatever was the cause of the rift can be repaired in time for the rest of the season.

That is an admirable sentiment. But does that ever happen in professional motorsport?

Photo by: Edge Photographics

Kostecki celebrating his maiden Supercars title in Adelaide

It is not unknown for drivers to split with teams after winning a title (yes, I am looking at you, Nigel Mansell). In Supercars it occured back in 2010, when James Courtney won the V8 Supercars crown in dramatic fashion while in the background, a battle between the co-owners of Dick Johnson Racing was simmering away. At the end of the season, Johnson and co-owner Charlie Schwerkolt went their separate ways and, with the aid of some stellar management by no less than Alan Gow, Courtney and his #1 plate decamped to the Holden Racing Team for a lucrative, red lion future.

But that is not what has happened this time. Courtney had a drive to go to and, at least at the time of writing, Kostecki does not. The notion of a driver, at the very height of his powers, preferring to take a year off instead of competing in a potential race-winning car is something that takes some getting used to.

There have been suggestions for some time that all was not well at Erebus. That star driver who departed, David Reynolds, won Bathurst with the team in 2017 and would have won again a year later had he not been struck down late in the race with cramp. He was on a long-term contract with the team but at the end of 2020 he suddenly left. Reynolds, a man usually only too happy to have a chat about the way of the world, has since remained shtum as to the reasons why.

Kostecki was already looking to a NASCAR future of his own for 2025 and was scheduled to drive in as many as five races in the USA this season, in a joint venture between Erebus and Richard Childress Racing

So what has happened at Erebus? Who can, or will, say? But as in life, problems in motorsport are rarely fixed by leaving the same people who were there when those problems started.

And what will Supercars itself do? Shane van Gisbergen, who pushed Kostecki so hard in the title race, has gone off to an American future in NASCAR. So too is the man he replaced on the throne, Scott McLaughlin, except his ride is in IndyCar. Jamie Whincup is retired. To find a former champion on the Supercars grid you have to look to Mark Winterbottom, whose title season came nine years ago.

If Kostecki does remain absent, any plans that Supercars had that revolved around promoting the battle between the newest champion and his challengers will have to be placed on the back burner. That is the bad news.

The good news is... maybe not all that bad. Kostecki was already looking to a NASCAR future of his own for 2025 and, unless there is some kind of impasse, was scheduled to drive in as many as five races in the USA this season, in a joint venture between Erebus and Richard Childress Racing. Whatever post-Kostecki plans were being put in place for 2025 might just have to be fast-tracked.

Photo by: Edge Photographics

Hazelwood will replace Kostecki at Bathurst

So, 2024 looks to be a great opportunity to push the youngsters into the spotlight. The quality is there and it is deep; Will Brown, Kostecki’s former team-mate, joins Broc Feeney at Triple Eight. Super2 graduate Aaron Love will join Courtney at Blanchard Racing Team (yes, the team’s driver lineup is ‘Courtney/Love’). As usual there will be a brace of impressively swift New Zealanders, led by prodigal son Richie Stanaway, Adelaide 500 winner Matt Payne, former Porsche top gun Jaxon Evans and Ryan Wood.

What for Erebus? Jack Le Brocq is already in place and has worked with the team before while Todd Hazelwood, confirmed by the team for the first race, has six seasons with three different teams. Between their combined 251 starts, there are two race wins and four podium finishes. Not terrible, but it is difficult to label either of them as a title contender.

Sports films usually have happy endings. Seabiscuit won that race in California. Roy Hobbs hit one last home run in The Natural. Sylvester Stallone even saved a penalty in Escape to Victory. Brodie Kostecki and Erebus Motorsport might get their happy endings as well. But from this seat in the stalls, right now it is difficult to think that we might be looking at two completely separate screenplays.