Erebus form rolls on with historic first

Erebus Motorsport proved its Newcastle form was no fluke with its first ever double podium in Supercars at Albert Park.

Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown finished second and third behind Race 3 winner Shane van Gisbergen on Thursday.

It comes after Kostecki scored a pole and a podium at the Thrifty Newcastle 500 earlier this month.

Erebus had never previously had both drivers finish on a Supercars podium, having competed in the series since 2013.

The next marker is winning its first race since 2021, when Brown won in Sydney. David Reynolds also won for the team at Albert Park in 2018.

The Melbourne team entered its home round leading the teams’ championship — and heads into Friday with an extended points lead.

Kostecki is also just 31 points behind championship leader Chaz Mostert, who came home fifth — and was excited to push Triple Eight all the way.

Van Gisbergen pipped Kostecki by just 0.3s, with Brown benefiting from a tyre rule quirk to score his first podium since Sandown 2022.

Brown takes third

“The car was really strong, hard racing at the start there with Anton,” Kostecki said.

“Didn’t place myself too smartly and come off third-best there.

“Car speed was really good, Will was absolutely flying towards the back half of that stint.

“It’s pretty rare that we’re close to the Red Bull cars on the long runs, it was great to see.

“A fantastic effort from the whole team, great to see we have really good car speed.”

Kostecki and Brown sandwiched Mostert before the stops, the former staving off an early challenge from Cam Waters with a bold defensive move at the fast flip-flop.

For Brown, the podium vindicated Erebus’ form, given the team’s performance in Newcastle.

“I didn’t get the best start, I dropped back to seventh but passed a few cars,” Brown said.

“Slowly worked my way up there and was catching second and third, and that loophole got me on the podium.

“We had awesome car speed, we were really coming… it’s cool to have both of us here, we’re leading the teams’ championship.

“Two completely different tracks, so it gives us a bit of confidence moving into the season.”

Cars will return to the track for the 15-lap Race 3 at 2:55pm local time on Friday.